NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR OCT CONTRACT: 772 NOTICE(S) FOR 77200 OZ

Total number of notices filed so far for OCT: 773 for 100 OZ (2.4043 TONNES)

FOR OCTOBER

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

145 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR

725,000 OZ/

Total number of notices filed so far this month: 175 for 875,000 oz

XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Bitcoin: OPENING MORNING TRADE $6664: DOWN $34

Bitcoin: FINAL EVENING TRADE: $6598 DOWN $17

end

First Shanghai gold fix comes at 10 pm est

The second Shanghai gold fix: 2:15 pm

First Shanghai gold fix gold: 10 pm est: $1196.94

NY price at the same time:$1184.40

PREMIUM TO NY SPOT: $7.76

Second gold fix early this morning: $ 1196.78

USA gold at the exact same time:$1189.25

PREMIUM TO NY SPOT: $7.53

XXXX

China is controlling the gold market

WE WILL NOT PROVIDE LONDON FIXES AS THEY ARE NOT ACCURATE AS TO WHAT IS GOING ON AT THE SAME TIME FRAME.

Let us have a look at the data for today

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In silver, the total OPEN INTEREST ROSE BY A TINY SIZED 350 CONTRACTS FROM 203,356 UP TO 203706 WITH FRIDAY’S 41 CENT RISE IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX. TODAY WE MOVED A LITTLE CLOSER TO LAST MONTH’S RECORD SETTING OPEN INTEREST OF 244,196 CONTRACTS.

WE HAVE ALSO WITNESSED A LARGE AMOUNT OF PHYSICAL METAL STAND FOR COMEX DELIVERY(WELL OVER 30 MILLION OZ AT THE COMEX FOR JULY , 6 MILLION OZ FOR AUGUST AND NOW JUST LESS THAN 31 MILLION OZ STANDING IN SEPTEMBER. AS WELL WE ARE WITNESSING CONSIDERABLE LONGS PACKING THEIR BAGS AND MIGRATING OVER TO LONDON IN GREATER NUMBERS IN THE FORM OF EFP’S. WE WERE NOTIFIED THAT WE HAD A STRONG SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONGS TRANSFERRING THEIR CONTRACTS TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP:

0 EFP’S FOR OCT. 2360 EFP’S FOR DECEMBER AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS AND THEREFORE TOTAL ISSUANCE: OF 2360 CONTRACTS. WITH THE TRANSFER OF 2360 CONTRACTS, WHAT THE CME IS STATING IS THAT THERE IS NO SILVER (OR GOLD) TO BE DELIVERED UPON AT THE COMEX AS THEY MUST EXPORT THEIR OBLIGATION TO LONDON. ALSO KEEP IN MIND THAT THERE CAN BE A DELAY OF 24-48 HRS IN THE ISSUING OF EFP’S. THE 2360 EFP CONTRACTS TRANSLATES INTO 11.80 MILLION OZ ACCOMPANYING:

1.THE 41 CENT RISE IN SILVER PRICEAT THE COMEX AND

2. THE STRONG AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES WHICH STOOD FOR THE JUNE/2018 COMEX DELIVERY MONTH. (5.420 MILLION OZ); 30.370 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR DELIVERY IN JULY, FOR AUGUST: 6.065 MILLION OZ AND 39.505 MILLION OZ STANDING IN SEPT. AND 1,105,000 OZSTANDING IN OCTOBER.

ACCUMULATION FOR EFP’S/SILVER/J.P.MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES, / STARTING FROM FIRST DAY NOTICE/FOR MONTH OF SEPT:

2360 CONTRACTS (FOR 1 TRADING DAYS TOTAL 2360 CONTRACTS) OR 11.800 MILLION OZ: (AVERAGE PER DAY: 2360 CONTRACTS OR 11.800 MILLION OZ/DAY)

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SUPPLY THIS MONTH IN SILVER: SO FAR THIS MONTH OF SEPT: 11.800 MILLION PAPER OZ HAVE MORPHED OVER TO LONDON. THIS REPRESENTS AROUND 1.68% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION (EX CHINA EX RUSSIA)* JUNE’S 345.43 MILLION OZ IS THE SECOND HIGHEST RECORDED ISSUANCE OF EFP’S AND IT FOLLOWED THE RECORD SET IN APRIL 2018 OF 385.75 MILLION OZ.

ACCUMULATION IN YEAR 2018 TO DATE SILVER EFP’S: 2,226.64 MILLION OZ.

ACCUMULATION FOR JAN 2018: 236.879 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR FEB 2018: 244.95 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR MARCH 2018: 236.67 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR APRIL 2018: 385.75 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR MAY 2018: 210.05 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR JUNE 2018: 345.43 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR JULY 2018: 172.84 MILLION OZ

ACCUMULATION FOR AUGUST 2018: 205.23 MILLION OZ.

ACCUMULATION FOR SEPTEMBER 2018: 167,05 MILLION OZ

RESULT: WE HAD A TINY SIZED INCREASE IN COMEX OI SILVER COMEX CONTRACTS OF 350 WITHTHE 41 CENT RISE IN SILVER PRICING AT THE COMEX //FRIDAY. THE CME NOTIFIED US THAT WE HAD A GOOD SIZED EFP ISSUANCE OF 2360CONTRACTS WHICH EXITED OUT OF THE SILVER COMEX AND TRANSFERRED THEIR OI TO LONDON AS FORWARDS. SPECULATORS CONTINUED THEIR INTEREST IN ATTACKING THE SILVER COMEX FOR PHYSICAL SILVER (SEE COMEX DATA) .

TODAY WE GAINED A STRONG SIZED:2710TOTAL OI CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES:

i.e 2360 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS HEADED FOR LONDON (EFP’s) TOGETHER WITH INCREASE OF 350 OI COMEX CONTRACTS. AND ALL OF THIS DEMAND HAPPENED WITH A41 CENT RISE IN PRICE OF SILVER AND A CLOSING PRICE OF $14.68 WITH RESPECT TO YESTERDAY’S TRADING. YET WE HAD A GIGANTIC AMOUNT OF SILVER STANDING AT THE COMEX FOR DELIVERY IN THE BIG JULY DELIVERY MONTH OF SLIGHTLY OVER 30 MILLION OZ, IN AUGUST ANOTHER BIG 6.065 MILLION OZ IN A NON ACTIVE MONTH AND NOW IN SEPTEMBER AN INITIAL MONSTROUS 39.505 MILLION OZ OF SILVER STANDING FOR DELIVERY… NOBODY IS PAYING ATTENTION TO THE HUGE NUMBER OF PHYSICAL OUNCES STANDING FOR SILVER THESE PAST SEVERAL MONTHS.

In ounces AT THE COMEX, the OI is still represented by OVER 1 BILLION oz i.e. 1.017 MILLION OZ TO BE EXACT or 145% of annual global silver production (ex Russia & ex China).

FOR THE NEW FRONT AUGUST MONTH/ THEY FILED AT THE COMEX: 145NOTICE(S) FOR 725,000 OZ OF SILVER

IN SILVER,PRIOR TO TODAY, WE SET THE NEW COMEX RECORD OF OPEN INTEREST AT 243,411 CONTRACTS ON APRIL 9.2018. AND AGAIN THIS HAS BEEN SET WITH A LOW PRICE OF $16.51.

AND NOW WE RECORD FOR POSTERITY ANOTHER ALL TIME RECORD OPEN INTEREST AT THE COMEX OF 244,196CONTRACTS ON AUGUST 22/2018 AND AGAIN WHEN THIS RECORD WAS SET, THE PRICE OF SILVER WAS $14.78 AND LOWER IN PRICE THAN PREVIOUS RECORDS.

ON THE DEMAND SIDE WE HAVE THE FOLLOWING:

HUGE AMOUNTS OF SILVER STANDING FOR DELIVERY (MARCH/2018: 27 MILLION OZ , APRIL/2018 : 2.485 MILLION OZ MAY: 36.285 MILLION OZ ; JUNE/2018 (5.420 MILLION OZ) , JULY 2018 FINAL AMOUNT STANDING: 30.370 MILLION OZ ) FOR AUGUST 6.065 MILLION OZ. , SEPT: AN INITIAL HUGE 39.505 MILLION OZ./AND NOW OCTOBER:1,105,000 oz
HUGE RECORD OPEN INTEREST IN SILVER 243,411 CONTRACTS (OR 1.217 BILLION OZ/ SET APRIL 9/2018) AND NOW AUGUST 22/2018: 244,196 CONTRACTS, WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78.
HUGE ANNUAL EFP’S ISSUANCE EQUAL TO 2.9 BILLION OZ OR 400% OF SILVER ANNUAL PRODUCTION/2017
RECORD SETTING EFP ISSUANCE FOR ANY MONTH IN SILVER; APRIL/2018/ 385.75 MILLION OZ/ AND THE SECOND HIGHEST RECORDED EFP ISSUANCE JUNE 2018 345.43 MILLION OZ

AND YET, WITH THE EXTREMELY HIGH EFP ISSUANCE, WE HAVE A CONTINUAL LOW PRICE OF SILVER DESPITE THE ABOVE HUGE DEMAND. TO ME THE ONLY ANSWER IS THAT WE HAVE SOVEREIGN (CHINA) WHO IS ENDEAVOURING TO GOBBLE UP ALL AVAILABLE PHYSICAL SILVER NO MATTER WHERE, EXACTLY WHAT J.P.MORGAN IS DOING. AND IT IS MY BELIEF THAT J.P.MORGAN IS HOLDING ITS SILVER FOR ITS BENEFICIAL OWNER..THE USA GOVERNMENT WHO IN TURN IS HOLDING THAT SILVER FOR CHINA.(FOR A SILVER LOAN REPAYMENT).

IN GOLD, THE OPEN INTEREST SURPRISINGLY FELL BY A CONSIDERABLE SIZED4554CONTRACTS DOWN TO 456,124 DESPITE THE RISEIN THE COMEX GOLD PRICE/FRIDAY’S TRADING (A GAIN IN PRICE OF $8.70).THE CME RELEASED THE DATA FOR EFP ISSUANCE AND IT TOTALED AN GOOD SIZED 5653 CONTRACTS: ALWAYS, ON THE WEEK PRIOR TO FIRST DAY NOTICE IN ANY ACTIVE MONTH WHETHER GOLD OR SILVER THE OI COLLAPSES. IT IS HERE THAT THE MIGRANTS RECEIVE THEIR FIAT BONUS FOR ENGAGING IN THIS EXERCISE. WE HAD THE FOLLOWING EFP ISSUANCE FOR TODAY:

OCTOBER HAD 0 EFP’S ISSUED AND, DECEMBER HAD AN ISSUANCE OF 5653 CONTACTS AND ALL OTHER MONTHS ZERO. The NEW COMEX OI for the gold complex rests at 456,124. ALSO REMEMBER THAT THERE WILL BE A DELAY IN THE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S. THE BANKERS REMOVE LONG POSITIONS OF COMEX GOLD IMMEDIATELY. THEN THEY ORCHESTRATE THEIR PRIVATE EFP DEAL WITH THE LONGS AND THAT COULD TAKE AN ADDITIONAL, 48 HRS SO WE GENERALLY DO NOT GET A MATCH WITH RESPECT TO DEPARTING COMEX LONGS AND NEW EFP LONG TRANSFERS. . EVEN THOUGH THE BANKERS ISSUED THESE MONSTROUS EFPS, THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH THE BANKERS TO SUPPLY METAL BUT IT TRANSFERS THE RISK TO A LONDON BANKER OBLIGATION AND NOT A NEW YORK COMEX OBLIGATION. LONGS RECEIVE A FIAT BONUS TOGETHER WITH A LONG LONDON FORWARD. THUS, BY THESE ACTIONS, THE BANKERS AT THE COMEX HAVE JUST STATED THAT THEY HAVE NO APPRECIABLE METAL!! THIS IS A MASSIVE FRAUD: THEY CANNOT SUPPLY ANY METAL TO OUR COMEX LONGS BUT THEY ARE QUITE WILLING TO SUPPLY MASSIVE NON BACKED GOLD (AND SILVER) PAPER KNOWING THAT THEY HAVE NO METAL TO SATISFY OUR LONGS. LONDON IS NOW SEVERELY BACKWARD IN BOTH GOLD AND SILVER AND WE ARE WITNESSING DELAYS IN ACTUAL DELIVERIES.

IN ESSENCE WE HAVE AN FAIR SIZED OI GAIN IN TOTAL CONTRACTS ON THE TWO EXCHANGES OF 1109 CONTRACTS: 4554 OI CONTRACTS DECREASEDAT THE COMEX AND 5653 EFP OI CONTRACTS WHICH NAVIGATED OVER TO LONDON. THUS TOTAL OI GAIN: 1109 CONTRACTS OR 110,900 OZ = 3.44 TONNES. AND ALL OF THIS HUGE DEMAND OCCURRED WITH A RISE IN THE PRICE OF GOLD/ YESTERDAY TO THE TUNE OF $8.70

FRIDAY, WE HAD 16,786 EFP’S ISSUED.

ACCUMULATION OF EFP’S GOLD AT J.P. MORGAN’S HOUSE OF BRIBES: (EXCHANGE FOR PHYSICAL) FOR THE MONTH OF SEPT : 5653CONTRACTS OR 565,300 OZ OR 17.58 TONNES (1 TRADING DAY AND THUS AVERAGING: 5653 EFP CONTRACTS PER TRADING DAY OR 565,300 OZ/ TRADING DAY),,

TO GIVE YOU AN IDEA AS TO THE HUGE SIZE OF THESE EFP TRANSFERS : THIS MONTH IN 1 TRADING DAY IN TONNES: 17.58 TONNES

TOTAL ANNUAL GOLD PRODUCTION, 2017, THROUGHOUT THE WORLD EX CHINA EX RUSSIA: 2555 TONNES

THUS EFP TRANSFERS REPRESENTS 17.58/2550 x 100% TONNES = 0.689% OF GLOBAL ANNUAL PRODUCTION SO FAR IN JULY ALONE.***

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S YEAR 2018 TO DATE: 5,685.15* TONNES *SURPASSED ANNUAL PROD’N

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S FOR JANUARY 2018: 653.22 TONNES (21 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S FOR FEBRUARY 2018: 649.45 TONNES (20 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S FOR MARCH 2018: 741.89 TONNES (22 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S FOR APRIL 2018: 713.84 TONNES (21 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP’S FOR MAY 2018: 693.80 TONNES ( 22 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP FOR JUNE 2018 650.71 TONNES (21 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP FOR JULY 2018 605.5 TONNES (21 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP FOR AUG. 2018 488.54 TONNES (23 TRADING DAYS)

ACCUMULATION OF GOLD EFP FOR SEPT 2018 470.64 TONNES (19 TRADING DAYS)

WHAT IS ALARMING TO ME, ACCORDING TO OUR LONDON EXPERT ANDREW MAGUIRE IS THAT THESE EFP’S ARE BEING TRANSFERRED TO WHAT ARE CALLED SERIAL FORWARD CONTRACT OBLIGATIONS AND THESE CONTRACTS ARE LESS THAN 14 DAYS. ANYTHING GREATER THAN 14 DAYS, THESE MUST BE RECORDED AND SENT TO THE COMPTROLLER, GREAT BRITAIN TO MONITOR RISK TO THE BANKING SYSTEM. IF THIS IS INDEED TRUE, THEN THIS IS A MASSIVE CONSPIRACY TO DEFRAUD AS WE NOW WITNESS A MONSTROUS TOTAL EFP’S ISSUANCE AS IT HEADS INTO THE STRATOSPHERE.

Result: A CONSIDERABLE SIZED DECREASE IN OI AT THE COMEX OF 4554 DESPITE THE GAIN IN PRICING ($8.70 THAT GOLD UNDERTOOK FRIDAY) //. WE ALSO HAD AN GOOD SIZED NUMBER OF COMEX LONG TRANSFERRING TO LONDON THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE: 5653 CONTRACTS AS THESE HAVE ALREADY BEEN NEGOTIATED AND CONFIRMED. THERE OBVIOUSLY DOES NOT SEEM TO BE MUCH PHYSICAL GOLD AT THE COMEX. I GUESS IT EXPLAINS THE HUGE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S…THERE IS HARDLY ANY GOLD PRESENT AT THE GOLD COMEX FOR DELIVERY PURPOSES. IF YOU TAKE INTO ACCOUNT THE 5653 EFP CONTRACTS ISSUED, WE HAD A FAIR GAIN OF 1109CONTRACTS IN TOTAL OPEN INTEREST ON THE TWO EXCHANGES:

5653 CONTRACTS MOVE TO LONDON AND 4554 CONTRACTS DECREASEDAT THE COMEX. (in tonnes, the GAIN in total oi equates to 3.44 TONNES). ..AND ALL OF GOOD DEMAND OCCURRED WITH A GAIN OF $8.70 IN FRiDAY’S TRADING AT THE COMEX.???

we had: 772 notice(s) filed upon for 77,200 oz of gold at the comex.

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With respect to our two criminal funds, the GLD and the SLV:

GLD...

WITH GOLD DOWN $4.40 TODAY: /

A HUGE CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD:

A LARGE DEPOSIT OF 3.94 TONNES

AND GOLD WAS DOWN?

/GLD INVENTORY 746.17 TONNES

Inventory rests tonight: 746.17 tonnes.

TO ALL INVESTORS THINKING OF BUYING GOLD THROUGH THE GLD ROUTE: YOU ARE MAKING A TERRIBLE MISTAKE AS THE CROOKS ARE USING WHATEVER GOLD COMES IN TO ATTACK BY SELLING THAT GOLD. IT SURE SEEMS TO ME THAT THE GOLD OBLIGATIONS AT THE GLD EXCEED THEIR INVENTORY

SLV/

WITH SILVER DOWN 27 CENTS CENTS TODAY

STRANGE. WE HAD NO CHANGES FOR SILVER :

/INVENTORY RESTS AT 333.046 MILLION OZ.

NOTE THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN THE GLD AND SLV: THE CROOKS CAN RAID GOLD BECAUSE THEY DO HAVE SOME PHYSICAL. THEY DO NOT RAID SILVER PROBABLY BECAUSE THERE IS NO REAL SILVER INVENTORIES BEHIND THEM

end

First, here is an outline of what will be discussed tonight:

1. Today, we had the open interest in SILVER ROSE BY A TINY SIZED 350 CONTRACTS from 203,356 DOWN TO 204,706 AND MOVING A LITTLE CLOSER THE NEW COMEX RECORD SET LAST MONTH AT 244,196 WITH A SILVER PRICE OF $14.78/(AUGUST 22/2018)..THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS SET ON APRIL 9/2018 AT 243,411 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS WITH THE SILVER PRICE AT THAT DAY: $16.53). AND PREVIOUS TO THAT, THE RECORD WAS ESTABLISHED AT: 234,787 CONTRACTS, SET ON APRIL 21.2017 OVER 1 1/3 YEARS AGO. THE PRICE OF SILVER ON THAT DAY: $17.89. AS YOU CAN SEE, WE HAVE RECORD HIGH OPEN INTERESTS IN SILVER ACCOMPANIED BY A CONTINUAL LOWER PRICE WHEN THAT RECORD WAS SET…..

OUR CUSTOMARY MIGRATION OF COMEX LONGS CONTINUE TO MORPH INTO LONDON FORWARDS AS OUR BANKERS USED THEIR EMERGENCY PROCEDURE TO ISSUE:

2360 CONTRACTS FOR DECEMBER AND AND ALL OTHER MONTHS: ZERO. TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 2360 CONTRACTS . EFP’S GIVE OUR COMEX LONGS A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. IF WE TAKE THE OI GAIN AT THE COMEX OF775CONTRACTS TO THE 2360 OI TRANSFERRED TO LONDON THROUGH EFP’S, WE OBTAIN A STRONG NET GAIN OF 2710 OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS. THUS IN OUNCES, THE GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 13.555 MILLION OZ!!! AND YET WE ALSO HAVE A STRONG DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL AS WE WITNESSED A FINAL STANDING OF GREATER THAN 30 MILLION OZ FOR JULY, A STRONG 6.065 MILLION OZ FOR AUGUST.. A HUGE 39.505 MILLION OZ STANDING FOR SILVER IN SEPTEMBER…AND NOW 1.105 million OZ STANDING FOR THE NON ACTIVE MONTH OF OCTOBER.

RESULT: A SMALL SIZED DECREASE IN SILVER OI AT THE COMEX WITH THE 41 CENT PRICING RISE THAT SILVER UNDERTOOK IN PRICING YESTERDAY.BUT WE ALSO HAD A GOOD SIZED 2360 EFP’S ISSUED TRANSFERRING COMEX LONGS OVER TO LONDON. TOGETHER WITH THE STRONG SIZED AMOUNT OF SILVER OUNCES STANDING FOR SEPTEMBER, DEMAND FOR PHYSICAL SILVER CONTINUES TO INTENSIFY AS WE WITNESS SEVERE BACKWARDATION IN SILVER IN LONDON.

(report Harvey)

2.a) The Shanghai and London gold fix report

(Harvey)

2 b) Gold/silver trading overnight Europe, Goldcore

(Mark O’Byrne/zerohedge

and in NY: Bloomberg

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

) MONDAY MORNING/ SUNDAY NIGHT: Shanghai closed

//Hang Sang CLOSED

//The Nikkei closed UP 125.72 POINTS OR 0.52%/ Australia’s all ordinaires CLOSED DOWN 0.52% /Chinese yuan (ONSHORE) closed UP at 6.889 AS POBC STOPS ITS HUGE DEVALUATION /DELEGATION COMING TO THE USA TO SEE TRUMP IN NOVEMBER CANCELLED/Oil UP to 73.41dollars per barrel for WTI and 83.11 for Brent. Stocks in Europe OPENED GREEN//. ONSHORE YUAN CLOSED DOWN AT 6.8829 AGAINST THE DOLLAR. OFFSHORE YUAN CLOSED UP ON THE DOLLAR AT 6.8841: HUGE DEVALUATION/PAST SEVERAL DAYS STOPS// TRADE TALKS STOPPED : /ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST OFFSHORE YUAN/ONSHORE YUAN TRADING STRONGER AGAINST USA DOLLAR/OFFSHORE YUAN TRADING WEAKER AGAINST THE DOLLAR /CHINA RETALIATES WITH TARIFFS/ TRUMP RESPONDS TO NEW TARIFFS AND IT NOW A FULL TRADE WAR COMMENCED

3A/NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA

i)North Korea/South Korea/USA/

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 C/ CHINA

Chinese manufacturing growth: the engine to the world economic success grinds to a complete halt with exports the leading culprit

(courtesy zerohedge)

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

a)Britain now offers to guarantee safe passage with respect to Ireland and Northern Ireland. This has been a major stumbling block

(courtesy zerohedge)

b)Italian bond yields rise to 3.20% after a report that Europe will reject Italy’s budget proposal

( zerohedge)

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

i)IRAN/USA

The USA is evacuating its consulate in Basra, Iraq citing threats from Iran

( zerohedge)

ii)IRAQ

Iraq is just not safe for women: an Iraqi model was gunned down in Baghdad and there has been a flurry of female activist assassinations by religious extremists

( zerohedge)

6. GLOBAL ISSUES

Indonesia

The powerful earthquake caused a massive tsunami which now hit the shores of Indonesin island of Sulawesia/ Hundred are now dead and dozens missing.

( zerohedge)

7. OIL ISSUES

Beijing bows to USA pressure and half’s its Iranian imports. This will be a devastating blow to Iran as their income is dwindling. Since oil is basically the only source of dollars, these guys are going to hyperinflate in no time.

( zero hedge)

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

i)ARGENTINA

9. PHYSICAL MARKETS

i)This is good!! we are witnessing many central banks of eastern persuasion buying gold. Last week we saw a huge influx of gold entering Thailand (21 tonnes) Today it is Poland

( Londan Financial times/Sanderson)

iiThe crooks do not invite us as the World Gold Council teaches central banks about gold

unbelievable..

( GATA)

10. USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver)

MARKET TRADING

ii)Market data

iii)USA ECONOMIC/GENERAL STORIES

a)Oh well!! what’s a few billion dollar loss..pocket change for the uSA..it costliest stealth fighter F 35 B has crashed in South Carolina

( zerohedge)

b)Today, Marty Feldstein (almost picked to be top honcho at the Fed) warns another recession is looming and it will be the rise in long term interest rates that will seal its fate.

A must read…

( Marty Feldstein/WallStreet Journal)

c)USA retailers are warning that the trade wars will cause inflation as unavoidable prices hikes are coming(courtesy zerohedge)

iv)SWAMP STORIES

i)A good commentary from Tom Luongo as he discusses what is going on in the uSA right now with an emphasis on the Kavanaugh issue

( Tom Luongo)

ii)LINDSAY GRAHAM blasts Feinstein’s despicable process. She stupidly demands that the FBI scope of Kavanaugh to be enlarged. It seems also thatTrump is zeroing in on important text messages sent by Comey that the officials refuse to hand over.

( zerohedge)

iii)Number 3 accuser is now finished as she has recanted her story

( zerohedge)

Let us head over to the comex:

The total gold comex open interest FELL BY A CONSIDERABLE SIZED 4554 CONTRACTS DOWN to an OI level 456,124 DESPITE THE RISE IN THE PRICE OF GOLD ($8.70 GAIN/ YESTERDAY’S COMEX TRADING). FOR TWO YEARS STRAIGHT WE HAVE NOTICED THAT ONE WEEK PRIOR TO FIRST DAY NOTICE OF AN ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS AND EFP’S NOTICES EXPONENTIALLY INCREASE AS WELL AS WE WITNESS THE COMEX OPEN INTEREST COLLAPSE. ONCE WE GET TO FIRST DAY NOTICE, THEN THE OPEN INTEREST RISES AND AGAIN THEY DID NOT DISAPPOINT US.

WE ARE NOW IN THE ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF OCT.. THE CME REPORTS THAT THE BANKERS ISSUED AN GOOD SIZED COMEX TRANSFER THROUGH THE EFP ROUTE AS THESE LONGS RECEIVED A DELIVERABLE LONDON FORWARD TOGETHER WITH A FIAT BONUS., THAT IS 5653 EFP CONTRACTS WERE ISSUED:

OCTOBER: 0 EFP’S AND DECEMBER: 5653 AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS:

TOTAL EFP ISSUANCE: 5653 CONTRACTS.

THE OBLIGATION STILL RESTS WITH THE BANKERS ON THESE TRANSFERS. ALSO REMEMBER THAT THERE IS NO DOUBT A HUGE DELAY IN THE ISSUANCE OF EFP’S AND IT PROBABLY TAKES AT LEAST 48 HRS AFTER LONGS GIVE UP THEIR COMEX CONTRACTS FOR THEM TO RECEIVE THEIR EFP’S AS THEY ARE NEGOTIATING THIS CONTRACT WITH THE BANKS FOR A FIAT BONUS PLUS THEIR TRANSFER TO A LONDON BASED FORWARD.

ON A NET BASIS IN OPEN INTEREST WE GAINED THE FOLLOWING TODAY ON OUR TWO EXCHANGES: A 1109 TOTAL CONTRACTS IN THAT 5653 LONGS WERE TRANSFERRED AS FORWARDS TO LONDON AND WE LOST 4554COMEX CONTRACTS.

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 1109 contracts OR 110900 OZ OR 3.44 TONNES.

Result: A CONSIDERABLE SIZED DECREASE IN COMEX OPEN INTEREST DESPITE THE GAIN IN PRICE/ FRIDAY (ENDING UP WITH THE RISE IN PRICE OF $8.70). THE TOTAL OPEN INTEREST GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 1109 OI CONTRACTS..

We are now in the active contract month of OCTOBER. For the October contract month, we lost only 406 contracts to fall to 3997 contracts. We had 1 notice filed on Friday, so we lost only 405 contracts or 40,500 oz will not stand for delivery at the comex and these guys marched over to London as they received London based forwards on top of a fiat bonus for their hard work.

The next delivery month is the non active NOVEMBER contract month and here the OI fell by 11 contracts down to 501. The next delivery month after November is the very big December contract month and here the OI fell by 5104 contracts down to 373,442 contracts.

WE HAD 772 NOTICE FILED AT THE COMEX FOR 77200 OZ.

FOR COMPARISON BETWEEN LAST YR AND TODAY:

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And now for the wild silver comex results.

Total silver OI ROSE BY A SMALL SIZED 350 CONTRACTS FROM 203,533 UP TO 203,706 (AND CLOSER TO THE NEW RECORD OI FOR SILVER SET ON AUGUST 22.2018. (THE PREVIOUS RECORD WAS SET APRIL 9.2018/ 243,411 CONTRACTS) AND TODAY’S OI COMEX GAIN OCCURRED WITH A 41 CENT GAIN IN PRICING.

WE ARE NOW INTO THE NON ACTIVE DELIVERY MONTH OF OCTOBER AND, WE WERE INFORMED THAT WE HAD A STRONG SIZED 2360 EFP CONTRACTS:

FOR DECEMBER: 2360 CONTRACTS AND ZERO FOR ALL OTHER MONTHS. THESE EFPS WERE ISSUED TO COMEX LONGS WHO RECEIVED A FIAT BONUS PLUS A DELIVERABLE PRODUCT OVER IN LONDON. THE TOTAL EFP’S ISSUED: 2360. ON A NET BASIS WE GAINED 230 SILVER OPEN INTEREST CONTRACTS AS WE OBTAINED A 350 CONTRACT GAIN AT THE COMEX COMBINING WITH THE ADDITION OF 2360 OI CONTRACTS NAVIGATING OVER TO LONDON.

NET GAIN ON THE TWO EXCHANGES: 2710CONTRACTS…AND ALL OF DEMAND OCCURRED WITH A 41 CENT GAIN IN PRICING.

We are now in the non active delivery month of October and here we had surprisingly a drop of only 32 contracts to stand at 189 contracts. We had 30 notices filed on Friday so we lost only 2 contracts or 10,000 oz will not stand as these guys received a London based forward plus a fiat bonus for all of their hard work.

After October, is the non active delivery month of November and here we gained 41 contracts to stand at 509.

AND NOW COMPARISON FOR OCTOBER:

INITIAL standings for OCT/GOLD

OCT 1-/2018.

Gold	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory in oz*	nil oz
Withdrawals from Customer* Inventory in oz*	xxxx oz
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory in oz*	xxx oz
Deposits to the Customer* Inventory, in oz*	xxxx oz
No of oz served (contracts) today	772 notice(s) 77,200 OZ
No of oz to be served (notices)	3225 contracts (322,500 oz)
Total monthly oz gold served (contracts) so far this month	773 notices 77,300 OZ .2.403 TONNES
Total accumulative withdrawals of gold from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of gold from the Customer* inventory this month*	xxx oz

we had xxx dealer entry:

total gold entering dealer: xxx oz

total gold withdrawing from the dealer; xxxoz

we had 0 kilobar transaction/

we had xx withdrawal out of the customer account:

FOR THE OCTOBER 2018 CONTRACT MONTH)

Today, 730 notice(s) were issued from JPMorgan dealer account and 0 notices were issued from their client or customer account. The total of all issuance by all participants equates to 773 contract(s) of which 0 notices were stopped (received) by j.P. Morgan dealer and 234 notice(s) was (were) stopped/ Received) by j.P.Morgan customer account.

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To calculate the INITIAL total number of gold ounces standing for the OCT/2018. contract month, we take the total number of notices filed so far for the month (773) x 100 oz or 100 oz, to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of OCT. (3992 contracts) minus the number of notices served upon today (772 x 100 oz per contract) equals 399,800 OZ OR 12.435 TONNES) the number of ounces standing in this non active month of OCT

Thus the INITIAL standings for gold for the OCT/2018 contract month:

No of notices served (772 x 100 oz) + {3992)OI for the front month minus the number of notices served upon today (772x 100 oz )which equals 399,800 oz standing OR 12.435 TONNES in this active delivery month of OCTOBER.

THERE ARE ONLY 4.544 TONNES OF REGISTERED COMEX GOLD AVAILABLE FOR DELIVERY AGAINST 12.435 TONNES STANDING FOR OCTOBER

total registered or dealer gold: 145,041.066 oz or 4.544 tonnes

total registered and eligible (customer) gold; 8,331,574.891 oz 259.14 tonnes

IN THE LAST 25 MONTHS 96 NET TONNES HAS LEFT THE COMEX.

end

And now for silver

AND NOW THE AUGUST DELIVERY MONTH

OCTOBER INITIAL standings/SILVER

OCT 1/ 2018

Silver	Ounces
Withdrawals from Dealers* Inventory*	xxx oz
Withdrawals from Customer Inventory	xxx oz
Deposits to the Dealer* Inventory*	nxxx oz
Deposits to the Customer Inventory	xxx oz
No of oz served today (contracts)	145 CONTRACT(S) 725,000 OZ)
No of oz to be served (notices)	44 contract (220,000 oz)
Total monthly oz silver served (contracts)	175 contracts (875,000 oz)
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Dealers* inventory this month*	NIL oz
Total accumulative withdrawal of silver from the Customer* inventory this month*

we had 0 inventory movement at the dealer side of things

total dealer silver: xxx million

total dealer + customer silver: xxx million oz

The total number of notices filed today for the OCTOBER 2018. contract month is represented by 145 contract(s) FOR 150,000 oz. To calculate the number of silver ounces that will stand for delivery in OCT., we take the total number of notices filed for the month so far at 175 x 5,000 oz = 875,000 oz to which we add the difference between the open interest for the front month of OCT. (221) and the number of notices served upon today (145 x 5000 oz) equals the number of ounces standing.

Thus the INITIAL standings for silver for the OCT/2018 contract month: 175(notices served so far)x 5000 oz + OI for front month of OCT 221) -number of notices served upon today (145)x 5000 oz equals 1,095,000 oz of silver standing for the OCT contract month. This is a huge number of oz standing for an off delivery month.

We lost two contracts or 10,000 oz will not be standing at the comex as these guys morphed into London based forwards as well as receiving a fiat bonus for their efforts

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

ESTIMATED VOLUME FOR TODAY: 87,771CONTRACTS

CONFIRMED VOLUME FOR YESTERDAY: 121,493 CONTRACTS..

YESTERDAY’S CONFIRMED VOLUME OF 121,493 CONTRACTS EQUATES TO 450 million OZ OR 60.7% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION OF SILVER

COMMODITY LAW SUGGESTS THAT OPEN INTEREST SHOULD NOT BE MORE THAN 3% OF ANNUAL GLOBAL PRODUCTION. THE CROOKS ARE SUPPLYING MASSIVE PAPER TRYING TO KEEP SILVER IN CHECK.

The record level of silver open interest is 234,787 contracts set on April 21./2017 with the price at that day at $18.42
The previous record was 224,540 contracts with the price at that time of $20.44

end

NPV for Sprott

1. Sprott silver fund (PSLV): NAV RISES TO -3.82% (SEPT.28/2018)
2. Sprott gold fund (PHYS): premium to NAV RISES TO -1.88% to NAV (SEPT 28/2018 )
Note: Sprott silver trust back into NEGATIVE territory at -3.82%-/Sprott physical gold trust is back into NEGATIVE/

(courtesy Sprott/GATA)

3.SPROTT CEF.A FUND (FORMERLY CENTRAL FUND OF CANADA):

NAV 12.22/TRADING 11.68/DISCOUNT 4.47.

END

And now the Gold inventory at the GLD/

SEPT 28/WITH GOLD UP $8.90/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.23 TONNES

SEPT 27/WITH GOLD DOWN $10.90: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.23 TONNES

SEPT 26/WITH GOLD DOWN $6.05: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.23 TONNES

SEPT 25/WITH GOLD UP 0.75: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.23 TONNES

SEPT 24/WITH GOLD UP $3.20: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.23 TONNES

SEPT 21/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.90/NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.23 TONNES

SEPT 20/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.80/A SMALL WITHDRAWAL OF .3 TONNES AND THIS IS TO PAY FOR FEES/742.23 TONNES

SEPT 18/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.00: NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.53 TONNES

SEPT 17/WITH GOLD UP $5.20: NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.53 TONNES

SEPT 14/WITH GOLD DOWN $6.95 TODAY, ANOTHER HUGE 2.65 TONNES OF GOLD WAS REMOVED FROM INVENTORY AT THE GLD..PRETTY SOON WE WILL HAVE ZERO INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 742.53 TONNES

SEPT 13/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.65:NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY REMAINS AT 745.18 TONNES

SEPT 12/WITH GOLD UP $8.00 TODAY:NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY REMAINS AT 745.18 TONNES

SEPT 11/WITH GOLD UP $3.00 TODAY: A SMALL CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD; A WITHDRAWAL OF .26 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 745.18 TONNES

SEPT 10/WITH GOLD DOWN 80 CENTS/ANOTHER HUGE 1.44 TONNES OF WITHDRAWAL FROM THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 745.44 TONNES

SEPT 7/WITH GOLD DOWN $3.75: NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY REMAINS AT 746.92 TONNES

SEPT 6/WITH GOLD UP $3.05 TODAY: NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY REMAINS AT 746.92

SEPT 5/WITH GOLD UP $2.30 TODAY, WE HAD ANOTHER WHOPPER OF A WITHDRAWAL: 6.24 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 746.92 TONNES

SEPT 4/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.65: ANOTHER 2.65 TONNES OF GOLD LEAVE THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 755.16 TONNES/

AUGUST 31/WITH GOLD UP $2.15:ANOTHER WITHDRAWAL OF 2.06 TONNES OF GOLD FROM THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 757.81 TONNES

AUGUST 30/WITH GOLD DOWN $6.90: NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 759.87 TONNES

AUGUST 29/WITH GOLD DOWN $2.90 (COMEX TO COMEX BUT UP 6.00 DOLLARS FROM ACCESS CLOSING) THE CROOKS RAIDED THE COOKIE JAR ONCE AGAIN TO THE TUNE OF 4.71 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 759.87 TONNES AFTER THE WITHDRAWAL.

AUGUST 28/WITH GOLD DOWN $1.60: NO CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 764.58 TONNES

AUGUST 27/WITH GOLD UP ANOTHER $3.00: ANOTHER SURPRISE WITHDRAWAL OF 2.65 TONNES FROM THE GLD/SHAREHOLDERS OF GLD ARE DUMB OWING THIS CRAP/INVENTORY RESTS AT 764.58 TONNES

AUGUST 24/WITH GOLD UP $18.65 TODAY/A SURPRISE WITHDRAWAL OF 1.53 TONNES FROM THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 767.23 TONNES

AUGUST 23/WITH GOLD DOWN $9.20: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 768.70 TONNES

AUGUST 22/WITH GOLD UP $3.45: NO CHANGES IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD/INVENTORY RESTS AT 768.70 TONNES

AUGUST 21: WITH GOLD UP $5.75/A BIG CHANGE IN GOLD INVENTORY AT THE GLD: A WITHDRAWAL OF 3.54 TONNES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 768.70 TONNES

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

SEPT 28/2018/ Inventory rests tonight at 742.23 tonnes

*IN LAST 466 TRADING DAYS: 188,48 NET TONNES HAVE BEEN REMOVED FROM THE GLD
*LAST 366 TRADING DAYS: A NET 31.94 TONNES HAVE NOW BEEN REMOVED FROM GLD INVENTORY.

end

Now the SLV Inventory/

SEPT 28/WITH SILVER UP 41 CENTS, STRANGELY WE HAD A WITHDRAWAL OF .517 MILLION OZ AT THE SLV.INVENTORY RESTS AT 333.046 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 27/WITH SILVER DOWN 10 CENTS: A HUGE WITHDRAWAL OF 1.457 MILLION OZ AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 333.563 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 26/WITH SILVER DOWN 9 CENTS: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 335.020 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 25/WITH SILVER UP 16 CENTS: STRANGE!! A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SVL: A WITHDRAWAL OF 1.645 MILLION OZ/.INVENTORY RESTS AT 335.020 MILLION OZ/

WITH SILVER DOWN ONE CENT TODAY: A HUGE DEPOSIT OF 1.692 MILLION OZ INTO THE INVENTORY OF THE SLV

INVENTORY RESTS AT 336.665 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 21/WITH SILVER UP 2 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 334.973 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 20/WITH SILVER UP 3 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 334.973 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 18/WITH SILVER DOWN 4 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 334.973 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 17/WITH SILVER UP 8 CENTS TODAY:NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 334.973 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 14/WITH SILVER DOWN 11 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 334.973 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 13/WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS TODAY: A HUGE CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV: A DEPOSIT OF 1.316 MILLION OZ OF SILVER ENTERS SLV INVENTORY/INVENTORY RESTS AT 334.973 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 12/WITH SILVER UP 9 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 333.657 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 11./WITH SILVER DOWN ONE CENT TODAY/WE HAD NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 333.657 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 10.WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS TODAY, WE HAD ANOTHER DEPOSIT OF 940,000 OZ/INVENTORY RESTS AT 333.657 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 7/WITH SILVER DOWN 2 CENTS (AND DOWN 48 CENTS FOR THE WEEK): WE HAD A HUGE DEPOSIT OF 3.008 MILLION OZ INTO THE SLV/

SEPT 6/WITH SILVER DOWN 4 CENTS TO: A SLIGHT CHANGE, A WITHDRAWAL OF 147,000 OZ AND THIS IS TO PAY FOR FEES/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.709 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 5./WITH SILVER UP 4 CENTS: NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.856 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 4/WITH SILVER DOWN 37 CENTS TODAY/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.856 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 31/WITH SILVER DOWN ONE CENT TODAY/NO CHANGES IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.856 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 30/WITH SILVER DOWN 20 CENTS TODAY, A BIG CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY: A DEPOSIT OF 742,000 AT THE SLV/ .INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.856 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 29/WITH SILVER DOWN 10 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.104 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 28/WITH SILVER DOWN 5 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.104 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 27/WITH SILVER UP 6 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.104 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 24./WITH SILVER UP 26 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.104 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 23/WITH SILVER DOWN 20 CENTS TODAY: NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.104 MILLION OZ/

AUGUST 22/WITH SILVER DOWN 1 CENT/NO CHANGE IN SILVER INVENTORY AT THE SLV/INVENTORY RESTS AT 329.104 MILLION OZ/

SEPT 28/2018:

Inventory 333.046 MILLION OZ

6 Month MM GOFO 2.04/ and libor 6 month duration 2.60

Indicative gold forward offer rate for a 6 month duration/calculation:

G0FO+ 2.04

libor 2.60 FOR 6 MONTHS/

GOLD LENDING RATE: .54%

XXXXXXXX

12 Month MM GOFO
+ 2.47%

LIBOR FOR 12 MONTH DURATION: 2.92

GOFO = LIBOR – GOLD LENDING RATE

GOLD LENDING RATE = +.45

end

Major gold/silver trading /commentaries for FRIDAY

GOLDCORE/BLOG/MARK O’BYRNE.

This Week’s Golden

ANDREW MAGUIRE’S KINESIS WHICH IS A”BITCOIN’ BACKED 100% BY ALLOCATED GOLD AND SILVER

Andrew Maguire’s Kinesis money which is a “bitcoin” but backed 100% by allocated gold and silver is set to go.

it think it would be a great idea to look at this!

please read at: https://kinesis.money/#/

(Andrew Maguire)

Dear Harvey Organ,

Thank you for your participation in our webinar on June 7th with our host and CEO of Kinesis, Thomas Coughlin.

The response we received has been incredible, we appreciate you taking the time to join us and hope you found it to be beneficial.

Due to such a high influx of questions we received we were unable to have them all answered. Nevertheless, if there was anything which requires more clarification, or you have a query which needs to be rectified, we invite you to join our telegram group:

https://t.me/kinesismoney

We apologize for the technical issues we incurred during the webinar which resulted in it running a little over schedule, we hope that the next one we host will run seamlessly.

A video has been put together and uploaded onto our YouTube channel which can be found here:

Kinesis Webinar

Please share and subscribe to our YouTube channel to be notified of all the latest videos as they become available.

The rapid growth that we are currently experiencing has been incredible and with your support, is only going to get better.

We are working behind the scenes very hard to create a better experience for everyone involved! Stay tuned in as we have many more announcements to be released in the upcoming days.

Kind Regards,

Kinesis Money

a:C/O ILS Fiduciaries (IOM) Limited, First Floor,Millennium House, Victoria Road, Douglas, Isle of Man IM2 4RW

w:kinesis.money e:info@kinesis.money

END

The following is self explanatory

(courtesy GATA/Chris Powell and Harvey Organ)

GATA asks bank regulator to check risks of gold

futures maneuver

Submitted by cpowell on Sun, 2018-06-10 16:17. Section: Daily Dispatches

12:21p ET Sunday, June 10, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

GATA has appealed to the U.S. comptroller of the currency, who has regulatory authority over banks, to review financial risks certain banks may have incurred through derivatives in the monetary metals markets, particularly through the recent heavy use of the “exchange for physicals” mechanism of settling gold and silver futures contracts on the New York Commodities Exchange.

The appeal was made in a letter sent May 5 to the comptroller, Joseph M. Otting, whose office is part of the U.S. Treasury Department, by your secretary/treasurer and GATA futures market consultant Harvey Organ.

“Exchange for physical” settlements of futures contracts long were considered emergency procedures when a seller was not able to deliver metal from an exchange-approved warehouse and wanted to settle with delivery elsewhere. But now such settlements appear to constitute most gold and silver futures settlements on the Comex. It is a strange development that appears to have been necessitated by the increasing difficulties of central banking’s gold and silver price suppression policy.

GATA has received no acknowledgment of the letter. Its text is below and a PDF copy of it is here:

http://www.gata.org/files/ComptrollerOfCurrencyLetter.pdf

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

* * *

May 5, 2018

Joseph M. Otting, Comptroller of the Currency
U.S. Treasury Department
400 7th Street, SW
Washington DC 20219

Dear Comptroller Otting:

Please let us bring to your attention financial risks to major banks involving their possibly unreported exposure to derivatives in the monetary metals markets.

In recent months gold and silver future contracts issued by U.S. banks on the New York Commodities Exchange have been moved off-exchange for delivery through a mechanism known as “exchange for physical” (EFP) contracts. Until recently use of this mechanism was considered an emergency procedure when a seller did not have access to metal for delivery through Comex warehouses. Now the mechanism seems to be in use for a large share of front-month contracts for which delivery is sought.

Here is an example that is happening at the Comex in the front active month of April for gold and the inactive delivery month of April for silver.

In gold, there were 229,436 EFP contracts for 713.64 tonnes, an average of 10,925 contracts and 1,092,500 ounces per trading day.

In silver, there were 77,150 EFP contracts for 385,750,000 ounces, an average of 3,673 contracts and 18,369,000 ounces per trading day.

London Bullion Market Association rules suggest that these contracts may not be reported to regulators. The LBMA’s bylaws say:

“Figures above exclude any contracts not subject to risk-based capital requirements, such as FX contracts with an original maturity of 14 days or less, futures contracts, written options, and basis swaps. Therefore, the total notional amount of derivatives by maturity will not add to the total derivatives figure in this table.”

We are told that these EFP contracts are transferred from the Comex to London as what are called “serial forwards” and their duration is always less than 14 days, which exempts them from being reported.

It is our understanding that in each quarter your office prepares a report detailing risk undertaken by the banks under the comptroller’s supervision.

These risks include derivatives undertaken by U.S. banks and other obligations that may cause a bank to fail. Our concern is that your office may not be aware of large unreported derivative exposure by banks.

Could you review this matter and let us know your conclusions?

Sincerely,

CHRIS POWELL
Secretary/Treasurer

HARVEY ORGAN
Consultant

Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
7 Villa Louisa Road
Manchester, Connecticut 06043-7541

end

Finally, they replied and it was a complete brush off

(courtesy zerohedge)

Currency comptroller brushes off GATA’s inquiry on

gold, silver EFPs

Submitted by cpowell on Fri, 2018-08-10 15:37. Section: Daily Dispatches

11:35a ET Friday, August 10, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

The U.S. comptroller of the currency, a bank regulator, has declined GATA’s request to inquire into the strange explosion of the use of the emergency procedure of “exchange for physicals” in the settlement by banks of the gold and silver futures contracts they have sold on the New York Commodities Exchange.

Your secretary/treasurer and GATA’s consultant about the Comex, Harvey Organ, wrote to the comptroller, James M. Otting, on May 5, calling attention to the recent enormous use of EFPs, which implies derivatives risks being undertaken by U.S. banks that could cause the banks to fail:

http://www.gata.org/node/18303

“Our concern is that your office may not be aware of large unreported derivative exposure by banks,” GATA wrote.

As months passed without any acknowledgment from the comptroller’s office, your secretary/treasurer appealed to his U.S. representative, John B. Larson, D-Connecticut, to ask the comptroller’s office to reply. The congressman’s office made a second inquiry on Monday this week and today the comptroller’s office provided Larson with a copy of a reply written and mailed Wednesday.

The comptroller’s reply, signed by the deputy comptroller for public affairs, Bryan Hubbard, said only that the comptroller’s office has “dedicated examiners” at the largest banks who “continuously evaluate the credit, market, operational, reputation, and compliance risks of bank trading and derivative activities.”

The reply did not say anything about the use of the “exchange for physicals” procedure for settling futures contracts. That is, the reply was a begrudged brushoff and GATA’s letter would have been ignored completely if not for Representative Larson’s repeated intervention.

Of course GATA hardly expected a conscientious reply to its letter, the comptroller’s office being not an independent regulator but part of the Treasury Department, whose mandate includes administration of the Gold Reserve Act of 1934, which, as amended in the 1970s, authorizes the department’s Exchange Stabilization Fund to secretly intervene in and rig any market in the world, directly or through intermediaries:

https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/international/ESF/Pages/esf-ind…

But there’s always value in demonstrating government’s lack of candor about what it is doing, especially in regard to the monetary metals.

A PDF copy of the reply from the comptroller’s office is posted at GATA’s internet site here:

http://www.gata.org/files/ComptrollerOfCurrencyReply-08-08-2018.pdf

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

END

this is good!! we are witnessing many central banks of eastern persuasion buying gold. Last week we saw a huge influx of gold entering Thailand (21 tonnes) Today it is Poland

(courtesy Londan Financial times/Sanderson)

Poland buys gold for first time in 20 years

Submitted by cpowell on Sat, 2018-09-29 23:57. Section: Daily Dispatches

Central Bank Gold Buying Hits Highest Level in Six Years, Macquarie Says

By Henry Sanderson
Financial Times, London
Thursday, September 27, 2018

Central banks have emerged as some of the biggest buyers of gold this year, with purchases hitting their highest level in six years, according to analysts at Macquarie.

Central banks have bought a total of 264 tonnes of gold this year, “by far the most at this stage of the year of any period in the last six years,” the bank said.

While gold buying has been dominated by Russia, Turkey, and Kazakhstan, Poland also bought gold for the first time since 1998, Macquarie said. …

… For the remainder of the report:

https://www.ft.com/content/e1334e52-c25c-11e8-95b1-d36dfef1b89a

end

The crooks do not invite us as the World Gold Council teaches central banks about gold

unbelievable..

courtesy GATA)

You’re not invited as World Gold Council

teaches central banks about gold

Submitted by cpowell on Mon, 2018-10-01 13:30. Section: Daily Dispatches

9:30a ET Monday, October 1, 2018

Dear Friend of GATA and Gold:

While bigwigs from Franco-Nevada’s Pierre Lassonde to crypto-anarchist Doug Casey insist that central banks don’t care about gold, the World Gold Council still is planning to invite central bankers and finance ministry and sovereign wealth fund officials to another “executive program in gold reserve management” The program will be held from November 26 to 28 in Singapore, and unless you’re connected to a government, you’re not invited.ccording to the World Gold Council’s announcement —

https://www.gold.org/news-and-events/events/executive-programme-in-gold-…

— the program will cover:

— Fundamentals of gold demand and supply.

— The role of gold as a reserve asset.

— Case studies on gold reserve management in practice.

— And gold market operations and accounting for gold.

That last topic might be especially interesting, since governments and central banks are so secretive about their gold market operations and gold reserve accounting.

Omitting anything about mere vaulting of gold, the program’s agenda at least suggests that the involvement of governments and central banks in the gold market is far more comprehensive than they and the gold council would like the world to believe.

While he scoffs at the idea that central banks might be interested in gold, Lassonde is a former chairman of the World Gold Council, which seems to continue to insist that central banks are or should be interested.

“Our purpose,” the Worldl Gold Council says, “is to stimulate and sustain demand for gold, provide industry leadership, and be the global authority on the gold market.” There’s nothing there about letting ordinary gold investors in on central banking’s secrets.

CHRIS POWELL, Secretary/Treasurer
Gold Anti-Trust Action Committee Inc.
CPowell@GATA.org

end______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Your early MONDAY morning currency, Asian stock market results, important USA/Asian currency crosses, gold/silver pricing overnight along with the price of oil Major stories overnight/9 AM EST

i) Chinese yuan vs USA dollar/CLOSED DOWN TO 6.8689/HUGE DEVALUATION FOR THE PAST FOUR WEEKS STOPS/CHINESE COMING TO USA FOR TRADE TALKS IN NOVEMBER CANCELLED //OFFSHORE YUAN: 6.8841 /shanghai bourse CLOSED

/HANG SANG CLOSED

2. Nikkei closed UP 125.72 POINTS OR 0.52%/USA: YEN RISES TO 113.91/

3. Europe stocks OPENED IN THE GREEN

/USA dollar index FALLS TO 95.11/Euro FALLS TO 1.1598

3b Japan 10 year bond yield: RISES TO. +.14/ !!!!(Japan buying 100% of bond issuance)/Japanese yen vs usa cross now at 113.91/ THIS IS TROUBLESOME AS BANK OF JAPAN IS RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY./JAPAN 10 YR YIELD IS NOW TARGETED AT .11%/JAPAN LOSING CONTROL OF THEIR BOND MARKET

3c Nikkei now JUST BELOW 17,000

3d USA/Yen rate now well below the important 120 barrier this morning

3e WTI:: 73.41 and Brent: 83.11

3f Gold DOWN/JAPANESE Yen DOWN/ CHINESE YUAN: ON SHORE UP/OFF- SHORE: UP

3g Japan is to buy the equivalent of 108 billion uSA dollars worth of bond per month or $1.3 trillion. Japan’s GDP equals 5 trillion usa./“HELICOPTER MONEY” OFF THE TABLE FOR NOW /REVERSE OPERATION TWIST ON THE BONDS: PURCHASE OF LONG BONDS AND SELLING THE SHORT END

Japan to buy 100% of all new Japanese debt and by 2018 they will have 25% of all Japanese debt. Fifty percent of Japanese budget financed with debt.

3h Oil UP for WTI and UP FOR Brent this morning

3i European bond buying continues to push yields lower on all fronts in the EMU. German 10yr bund RISES TO +.490%/Italian 10 yr bond yield UP to 3.20% /SPAIN 10 YR BOND YIELD UP TO 1.52%

3j Greek 10 year bond yield RISES TO : 4.20

3k Gold at $1188.70 silver at:14.43 7 am est) SILVER NEXT RESISTANCE LEVEL AT $18.50

3l USA vs Russian rouble; (Russian rouble DOWN 20/100 in roubles/dollar) 65.82

3m oil into the 72 dollar handle for WTI and 81 handle for Brent/

3n Higher foreign deposits out of China sees huge risk of outflows and a currency depreciation. This can spell financial disaster for the rest of the world/

JAPAN ON JAN 29.2016 INITIATES NIRP. THIS MORNING THEY SIGNAL THEY MAY END NIRP. TODAY THE USA/YEN TRADES TO 113.91DESTROYING JAPANESE CITIZENS WITH HIGHER FOOD INFLATION

30 SNB (Swiss National Bank) still intervening again in the markets driving down the SF. It is not working: USA/SF this morning 0.9841 as the Swiss Franc is still rising against most currencies. Euro vs SF is 1.1388 well above the floor set by the Swiss Finance Minister. Thomas Jordan, chief of the Swiss National Bank continues to purchase euros trying to lower value of the Swiss Franc.

3p BRITAIN VOTES AFFIRMATIVE BREXIT/LOWER PARLIAMENT APPROVES BREXIT COMMENCEMENT/ARTICLE 50 COMMENCES MARCH 29/2017

3r the 10 Year German bund now POSITIVE territory with the 10 year RISING to +0.49%

The bank withdrawals were causing massive hardship to the Greek bank. the Greek referendum voted overwhelming “NO”. Next step for Greece will be the recapitalization of the banks and that will be difficult.

4. USA 10 year treasury bond at 3.07% early this morning. Thirty year rate at 3.22%

5. Details Ransquawk, Bloomberg, Deutsche bank/Jim Reid.

6. TURKISH LIRA: UP TO 5.9536

US Futures, Loonie, Peso Jump After Last

Minute Nafta Deal

With China on holiday this week, traders had fewer distractions and more time to focus on the main overnight event, namely the last minute deal between the US and Canada to reconstitute NAFTA (or USMCA as Trump now calls it) and what it would mean for trade relations, which sent US equity futures soaring to just shy of all time highs…

… and helped world markets kick off the fourth quarter of the year in a positive vein, overcoming lingering concerns about Italian politics and a slowdown in Chinese manufacturing over the weekend.

Last on Sunday, the US and Canada said in an official statement that they have reached a trade deal with Mexico in an agreement dubbed the USMCA (US-Mexico-Canada Agreement). US President Trump is to sign the new trade agreement by the end of November, which will then get passed on to Congress.

Canada agreed to eliminate the “Class 7” milk protein pricing system and increase US access to Canada’s dairy market beyond Trans-Pacific partnership levels. The New trade deal does not make major changes to current Chapter 19 trade dispute settlement mechanism which gives the three countries the right to challenge each other’s anti-dumping and countervailing duty decisions in front of an expert panel with members from both countries involved in a dispute. US said the trade deal with Canada does not affect US steel and aluminium tariffs currently levied on Canada, and that these tariffs are separate to the trilateral deal. A Senior Trump Administration official said if Trump imposes auto tariffs, both Mexico and Canada will be accommodated in “side letters”.

The deal was the latest “feather in the cap” for U.S. trade negotiator Robert Lighthizer, who has advocated a tough line towards China, compared with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.

The news sent the Canadian dollar up 0.65% against the dollar to a four-month high while the Mexican peso hit its highest in over seven weeks.

“The trade deal is helping risk appetite across the board, especially the Canadian dollar, and that will likely lift appetite for emerging-market currencies across the board,” said Manuel Oliveri, a currency strategist at Credit Agricole in London.

The breakthrough also supported global equity markets, with European stocks climbing as havens including the yen and gold fell. The Stoxx Europe 600 Index rose for the fourth day in the last five, led by technology and chemicals companies, ignoring the latest political noise in Italy, where an unconfirmed report in the media suggested that the EU would reject Italy’s 2.4% budget deficit proposal in November and open a procedure against the country’s public accounts which extended the selloff in Italian bonds from last week.

EU Commissioner Dombrovskis said what emerges so far from discussions in Italy does not seem to be in line with EU fiscal rules, he added it’s important to stick to responsible fiscal policy to keep interest rates low. The Dutch PM has also expressed his concerns over the Italian budget plan. Meanwhile, Italy’s Finance Minister Tria is attempting to head off a confrontation between the EU and Italy that by insisting that the country will reduce public debt despite its plans to increase spending.

“It is quite clear that the European Commission will not like (the budget proposal),” said Commerzbank rates strategist Michael Leister. “Brussels will give its opinion, which we think won’t be positive and … the ratings agencies will opt for a similar stance. A downgrade is our base case.”

The euro was initially hit by worries about Italy’s fiscal deficit, dropping below the $1.16 mark having lost 1.2 percent last week and off three-month high of $1.18155 touched a week ago; however it since rebounded and was trading virtually unchanged, just above 1.16 at last check.

Investors will also be closely watching the market impact from the latest ECB tapering: the central bank will cut its monthly bond purchases in half to €15 billion starting this month, with a full phase out expected by year end. However the euro edged up, shrugging off data showing growth in euro-area factory output slid to the weakest pace in two years, on the back of renewed dollar weaknss.

With China, Australia and Hong Kong out on vacation, attention focused on Japan where the Nikkei 225 Average closed at its highest level in nearly 27 years amid muted trading as much of Asia was on holiday.

Also casting a shadow were two surveys on Sunday that showed growth in Chinese manufacturing sputtered in September as domestic and export demand softened. As a result, the MSCI’s index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan fell 0.25 percent.

In rates, Treasury 10-year yields advanced to 3.09%, wiping out all the TSY gains since last week’s Fed meeting.

Investors will also be keenly focused on Tesla after Elon Musk’s agreement with U.S. regulators; the shares soared 16% in pre-market after Musk agreed to resign as chairman for three years and pay a fine, he would however keep his job as CEO.

Oil prices held their gains, with international benchmark Brent briefly hitting a four-year high, as U.S. sanctions on Tehran squeezed Iranian crude exports, tightening supply even as other key exporters increased production. Brent crude futures rose 0.6% to as high as $83.25 per barrel, the highest since November 2014, before trading flat on the day at $82.72.

In the latest Brexit news, UK PM May said the Chequers plan is not dead, while added she is prepared to listen to EU counter-proposals but she wants to hear the details of EU’s concerns, and EU leaders want a deal just as she does. She said she believes Chequers will not destroy the single market and a Canada-style deal is not on the table for EU. In the interview, she refused to answer whether a no-deal Brexit will mean a hard border in Ireland. Note: BBC’s Andrew Marr noted a no-deal under WTO would result in a hard border. May, in a Sunday Times interview, told Tory rebels to “stop playing politics” and the only proposal on the table at the moment that delivers, is the Chequers plan, while she reiterated that no deal is better than a bad deal but she thought a good deal could be reached. She also challenged the EU to come forward with a counter proposal. Meanwhile, former UK Foreign Secretary Boris Johnson has refused to rule out a leadership challenge to UK PM May. Furthermore, in an interview with The Sunday Times, Johnson questioned whether UK PM May believes in Brexit and branded her Chequers plan “deranged”.

In geopoliticsNorth Korea’s Foreign Minister announced that North Korea would not take the first steps towards denuclearisation without further
guarantees from the US. He also warned of the increasing mistrust between Pyongyang and Washington DC. (Telegraph)
Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Lavrov said everything possible will be done to preserve Iran nuclear deal.

Expected data includes manufacturing PMI and construction spending. Cal-Maine and Stitch Fix are among companies reporting earnings.

Market Snapshot

S&P 500 futures up 0.6% to 2,937.00
STOXX Europe 600 up 0.3% to 384.27
MXAP down 0.2% to 164.98
MXAPJ down 0.2% to 524.93
Nikkei up 0.5% to 24,245.76
Topix up 0.04% to 1,817.96
Hang Seng Index up 0.3% to 27,788.52
Shanghai Composite up 1.1% to 2,821.35
Sensex up 0.2% to 36,285.78
Australia S&P/ASX 200 down 0.6% to 6,172.26
Kospi down 0.2% to 2,338.88
German 10Y yield rose 2.4 bps to 0.494%
Euro down 0.05% to $1.1598
Italian 10Y yield rose 25.4 bps to 2.781%
Spanish 10Y yield rose 1.5 bps to 1.515%
Brent futures up 0.2% to $82.91/bbl
Gold spot down 0.4% to $1,186.65
U.S. Dollar Index little changed at 95.10

Top Overnight News

Trump is set to sign a successor to NAFTA that will make modest revisions to a deal he once called a “disaster,” easing uncertainty for companies reliant on tariff-free commerce; the new accord will be named the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement, or USMCA
Growth in euro-area factory output slid to the weakest pace in two years as the spillover from trade wars is starting to dent demand. IHS Markit’s Purchasing Managers’ Index for manufacturing slowed to 53.2 in September, down from 54.6 in August, and below a previous flash estimate of 53.3
U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May faces the battle of her political life to retain control of the governing Conservative Party as top Tory politicians undermined her leadership. After arch rival Boris Johnson went for the jugular, Chancellor Philip Hammond swept in to defend her in an increasingly chaotic political scene
Italian Finance Minister Giovanni Tria is certain to face questions about the nation’s 2019 spending plan even though it’s not on Monday’s Eurogroup agenda in Luxembourg
Royal Dutch Shell Plc and its four partners have agreed to invest in a $31 billion LNG project in Canada
Two- thirds of business economists in the U.S. expect a recession to begin by the end of 2020, while a plurality of respondents say trade policy is the greatest risk to the expansion, according to a new survey
China’s official manufacturing PMI stood at 50.8 in September versus 51.3 in August, lower than the median analyst estimate of 51.2. Meanwhile, the Caixin manufacturing PMI, which better reflects sentiment among smaller, private firms, declined to 50 from 50.6, the lowest since May 2017

Asian stocks traded mixed following a rather uneventful lead from Wall St. on Friday where major bourses ended the day little changed as markets wrapped up a strong quarter where the S&P showed it best quarterly gain since Q4 2013. ASX 200 (-0.6%) underperformed amid a slowdown in China’s manufacturing sector shown by the Caixin data, while Nikkei 225 (+0.5%) was buoyed on currency effect in a continued weakness of the JPY following a downbeat Tankan release and Manufacturing PMI. Elsewhere, Hong Kong and Mainland China are closed today due to public holidays. Indonesia’s island Sulawesi was hit by a 7.5 magnitude earthquake, which triggered a 6m (20ft) tsunami that hit the cities of Palu and Donggala. Officials have confirmed the death toll rose to over 800.

Top Asian News

India Seeks Court Approval to Take Control of Indebted Financier

European equities have started the day on the front foot, with the FTSE the laggard, as a slightly bid GBP is weighing on the index. The consumer discretionary sector is the marked underperformer as RyanAir (-8.7%) cutting guidance due to lower than expected Q2 and Q3 traffic has hit European airline stocks, with all of Air France (-2.5%), EasyJet (-3.0%) and Lufthansa (-1.0%) in the red. Linde (+1.2%) is leading the gains in Germany and has supported the DAX to near the top of the index pile after receiving antitrust approval from China for their Praxair merger. The FTSE MIB is the outperforming index as Italian stocks are seeing some reprieve from last week’s sell off. Index heavyweight Telecom Italia (-1.5%) are, however, in the red after a broker downgrade at Barclays.

Top European News

Danske Names Interim CEO as Borgen ‘Relieved of His Duties’
May Faces Tory Fire Over Brexit as Hammond Attacks Boris Johnson
Swiss Private Banks Urged to Partner in a ‘Complex’ World
U.K. Manufacturing Growth Unexpectedly Accelerates in September

In FX, the Loonie has leapt to the top of the G10 leader board, and aside from testing resistance round 1.2800 vs its US counterpart that Cad is bid and outperforming right across the board. The clear catalyst is a somewhat unexpected pre-‘deadline’ deal between the US and Canada on a new style NAFTA deal that will include Mexico and be renamed as USMCA. Looking at technicals, if Usd/Cad breaches 1.2800 and remains below multi-month chart support around 1.2813-19, that includes a 50% Fib, nearest or next downside targets are seen circa 1.2730, 1.2685 and even 1.2500, while from a more fundamental perspective comments from BoC’s Lane later may impact.JPY/CHF – The clear underperformers, as Usd/Jpy continues to break higher and just climbed above 114.00 following dips in Japan’s Q3 Tankan survey and September manufacturing PMI, while Usd/Chf remains within 0.9845-00 parameters in wake of a less robust Swiss manufacturing PMI that overshadowed a recovery in retail sales. EUR/NZD/AUD – All relatively flat or narrowly mixed vs the Greenback, with the single currency pivoting 1.1600 amidst somewhat divergent Eurozone manufacturing PMIs and reports suggesting that the EU will register its objection to Italy’s proposed 2.4% 2019 budget (in November, according to sources). Note also, the spill-over from SOMA may well weigh on the headline pair at some stage. EM – The Peso and Lira are heading the regional pack, with Usd/Mxn testing bids around 18.5000 on the aforementioned NAFTA breakthrough to include all 3 countries in a new pact, while Usd/Try has made a more convincing break below the 6.0000 handle as healthy or at least encouraging Turkish trade data offset a disappointing manufacturing PMI (former boosted by exports vs latter deeper in sub-50 territory).

In commodities, the oil market is uneventful this morning and seeing a lack of newsflow for the fossil fuel, with Brent essentially unchanged for the day and hanging just below the USD 83.00 handle after last week’s rise to over 4 year highs. A senior Iranian Oil Official said they have no plans to reduce oil production. Most metals are in the red this morning with zinc and copper down by over 1% and gold down by 0.5% as the week-long holiday in China is hitting demand.

It’s a busy start to the week for data on Monday. The main focus should be the final September manufacturing PMI revisions in Japan, Europe – with a first look at the data for the periphery – and the US. Also due is the August unemployment rate for the euro area and money and credit aggregates data for the UK, while in the US we’ll also get the September ISM manufacturing and September vehicle sales data.

US Event Calendar

9:45am: Markit US Manufacturing PMI, est. 55.6, prior 55.6
10am: Construction Spending MoM, est. 0.4%, prior 0.1%
Wards Total Vehicle Sales, est. 16.8m, prior 16.6m

DB’s Jim Reid concludes the overnight wrap

The final September PMI revisions around the world will also be closely watched. Today sees the final manufacturing revisions – including of course a first look at the periphery in Europe where Italy in particular is expected to show little improvement from the 50.1 reading in August – while the final services and composite revisions will be seen on Wednesday. Away from that today sees the September ISM manufacturing in the US. In China we had the September PMIs released over the weekend with the main story being weakness in the manufacturing sector. Indeed both the official (50.8 vs. 51.2 expected) and Caixin manufacturing readings (50.0 vs. 50.5 expected) fell more than expected last month, indicative perhaps of fallout from the trade war. There was better news from the non-manufacturing sector however (54.9 vs. 54.0 expected).

Meanwhile the UK Conservative party conference kicked off yesterday. In a BBC interview yesterday morning PM May indicated that the Chequers plan is still her offer with regards to a Brexit deal. Today sees Brexit Secretary Dominic Raab and Chancellor Philip Hammond speak. Wednesday sees PM May close out the event. Our economists expect May to take a hard line on Brexit to keep the rank and file happy.

Overnight the main news is that of a deal struck between the US and Canada to a NAFTA replacement which includes Mexico. The new deal, which is expected to be signed by the end of November, is to be called the US-Mexico-Canada agreement, or USMCA. The deal includes ground-breaking intellectual property provisions, new provisions in unfair trade practices, new market access for dairy producers and stronger labour provisions. Unsurprisingly the Mexican Peso (+0.65%) and Canadian Dollar (+0.51%) are the big early movers in FX markets while US equity futures are up +0.50%. With China out trading volumes are thinner than usual and the rest of markets in Asia are more mixed (Nikkei +0.43%, Kospi -0.27%).

Back to last week and the Italian budget dominated market attention on Friday. There wasn’t much fresh newsflow on Friday and over the weekend aside from some verbal sparring including comments from Central Bank Governor Visco warning about the need to reduce Italy’s debt burden. The new additional info early on Friday was that the 2.4% deficit would be for each of the next three years although Cabinet Undersecretary Giorgetti did tell La Republica over the weekend that there could be some flexibility in that. BTPs reacted reasonably rationally in that our strategists model based on twin deficits suggested that a 2.4% deficit should increase spreads by 15-35bps on Friday. They closed 25.7bps higher but were nearly 40bps higher by late morning. It was still the biggest move and widest range since the May selloff. Two-year yields rose 24.7bps and were around 40bps at the highs for the day. Perhaps confirmation that Tria is staying helped settle the market down in the afternoon. Tria reiterated his plans to stay over the weekend and did say that debt should fall one percentage point over each of the next 3 years. However this is based on his growth forecasts of 1.6% and 1.7% in 2019 and 2020. To put this into some perspective DB’s forecasts for Italian growth in 2019 has been 0.9%. Mark Wall suggests that if normal fiscal multipliers apply then Italy could get a 0.5% boost but with crowding out due to higher yields it will likely be less. He also made the point that there’s no sign of any structural reforms that would increase growth. So it’s unlikely that debt will fall.

Back to Friday and Bunds rallied on the risk-off flows, with 10-year yields falling 5.8bps, the most since May. Italian equities also underperformed sharply, with the FTSEMIB shedding -3.72% versus the Euro Stoxx 600’s -0.83% fall. European banks led declines (-3.92%), and Italian banks in particular had a terrible day (-7.26%), their worst since the post-Brexit carnage of June 2016.

Looking ahead over the next weeks and months, the reactions to the Italian budget from the European Commission and from ratings agencies will be key. The Commission has the power to request budget changes and can impose sanctions in the event of noncompliance, and the Economic Affairs Commissioner Pierre Moscovici has already signaled that the current plan looks like it is “out of line with our rules.” The three major ratings agencies all place Italy two notches above speculative-grade, and there are risks of downgrades next month.

After the Fed hike week 10yr Treasury yields ended the week close to flat (+0.9bps Friday), though the 2s10s curve flattened back to within 5.6bps of its cyclical low. The dollar rallied +0.97% on the week, with most gains coming against the euro, as the single currency sold off at the end of the week around the Italy headlines (-0.32% Friday). Emerging market currencies gained +0.52% last week with the Turkish Lira (+3.83%) and Russian Ruble (+1.35%) outperforming, while Argentine Peso shed -9.89% to reach its weakest-ever level versus the dollar.

While European equities uniformly retreated amid the Italy drama (Stoxx 600 -0.83% Friday, -0.29% on week), other global bourses were more mixed. The S&P 500 and DOW retreated -0.54% and -1.07%, respectively over the 5 days, while the tech-heavy NASDAQ advanced +0.74%. The latter was on track for even higher gains before Facebook shed -2.59% on Friday after news broke that a security issue had compromised data on some 50 million Facebook users. Equities in Asia mostly advanced on the week with the Nikkei and Shanghai Composite gaining +1.05% and +0.85%, respectively. Brent Crude oil advanced +4.97% to its highest level since 2014, closing above $82 per barrel.

After Thursday’s bumper German CPI, the euro area aggregate CPI missed expectations on Friday, with the core reading falling to 0.9% yoy versus expectations for 1.1%. So, some inflation softness in the periphery of the euro area. Core US PCE inflation modestly missed expectations for August on Friday at 0.0% mom, though the yoy figure stayed steady at the Fed’s target of 2.0%.

It’s a busy start to the week for data on Monday. The main focus should be the final September manufacturing PMI revisions in Japan, Europe – with a first look at the data for the periphery – and the US. Also due is the August unemployment rate for the euro area and money and credit aggregates data for the UK, while in the US we’ll also get the September ISM manufacturing and September vehicle sales data. Away from that the BoE’s Tenreyro and Fed’s Bostic, Kashkari and Rosengren will all be speaking at various times. Worth noting also is that Monday marks the final day of debate at the UN General Assembly, while euro area finance ministers will also meet in Luxembourg to discuss ‘national automatic stabilisers’.

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

i) MONDAY MORNING/ SUNDAY NIGHT: Shanghai closed

//Hang Sang CLOSED

3 a NORTH KOREA/USA

North Korea/South Korea/USA/China

3 b JAPAN AFFAIRS

END

3C CHINA

Chinese manufacturing growth: the engine to the world economic success grinds to a complete halt with exports the leading culprit

(courtesy zerohedge)

Chinese Manufacturing Growth Grinds To

A Halt As Exports Tumble

Two weeks after the latest economic data dump from China showed a continued slowdown in the local economy, the latest PMI surveys confirmed that the weakness in China’s manufacturing sector was accelerating.

According to the official NBS manufacturing PMI which was released on Sunday, sentiment dropped further in September, despite what has been a mild upward seasonal bias in recent years. All sub-indexes showed weaker growth momentum. The Caixin manufacturing PMI also declined in September, reflecting the nation’s economic slowdown and fallout from the trade war with the U.S. The NBS non-manufacturing PMI was stronger, however, due entirely to a surge in the construction PMI.

NBS manufacturing PMI fell to 50.8 in September, from 51.3 in August and below the Bloomberg consensus of 51.2. While this was the first September drop since the NBS manufacturing PMI series was released, it was also the 26th consecutive month of prints above the 50-point mark that separates growth from contraction.

Looking at the components, all the major sub-indexes showed weaker growth momentum in September. The production sub-index moderated 0.3pp to 53.0 and the new order sub-index was 0.2pp lower at 52.0. Trade indicators softened as well—the new export order sub-index fell to 48.0 from 49.4, and the imports sub-index declined 0.6pp to 48.5. Both indexes were at the weakest levels since February 2016. The employment sub-index fell 1.1pp to 48.3, and the suppliers’ delivery times sub-index rose 0.1pp to 49.7 (higher suppliers’ delivery times imply weaker demand conditions). The raw material inventories index was 0.3pp lower, and the finished goods inventory index was unchanged vs August. Inflationary pressures increased mainly at the input level – the input price index rose 1.1pp to 59.8, and the output prices index was unchanged at 54.3.

Separately, the Caixin manufacturing PMI – which better reflects sentiment among smaller, private firms – declined to 50 from 50.6, the lowest since May 2017 and ending 15 months of expansion, with export orders falling the fastest in over two years as U.S. tariffs are starting to take a toll on the economy.

The output sub-index fell 1.4pp to 51.1, and the new orders sub-index was 50.1, 0.5pp lower the August. Similar to the NBS manufacturing survey, new export order index in the Caixin manufacturing survey softened in September, with companies citing “the China-US trade war and subsequent tariffs” as contributing factors according to the Caixin survey.

“The further slowdown in China’s official manufacturing PMI in September reflects the intensifying impact of the U.S.-China trade war on China’s manufacturing export sector,” said IHS Markit APAC chief economist Rajiv Biswas. “The near-term outlook for the Chinese manufacturing export sector remains weak, albeit the Chinese government may apply some further stimulus measures to support growth.”

It was not all gloom, however: the official non-manufacturing PMI picked up to 54.9, signaling that domestic demand for services and construction remains strong enough to mitigate some of the external headwinds that the economy is facing, largely the result of the bubble housing sector. While the services PMI reading was the same as August at 53.4, the construction PMI spiked to 63.4, 4.4pp higher from August (which might reflect the unwinding of previous drag from adverse weather conditions). That construction uptick, if sustained, could be a sign that the measures aimed at boosting infrastructure investment are starting to kick in.

According to Goldman’s Maggie Wei, the decline in the manufacturing PMI surveys “indicates that growth faced increased downward pressures in the manufacturing sector, driven by weaker export growth, possibly due to a combination of slower global demand and increased trade tensions, has possibly weighed on activity growth in the manufacturing sector.”

Goldman’s assessment is that as a result, “more policy easing measures (such as targeted RRR cuts as discussed in the recent state council meeting) could be announced in the near future to help buffer growth downside.”

Others agreed: “the government’s support policy will start to have an impact in the fourth quarter, which could offset the damage of the trade war,” said Gao Yuwei, a researcher at Bank of China. “The efforts to shore up infrastructure investment has been driving up construction activity, and services industries normally perform better in the third and fourth quarter.”

As Bloomberg notes, officials have promised fiscal stimulus in the form of tax cuts and infrastructure spending to buffer the domestic economy somewhat from the effects of the trade dispute. Analysts also expect China’s central bank will continue topping up liquidity in the financial system to support economic growth.

And while there are pockets of strength, primarily within construction, whatever stimulus China has injected has yet to reach the broader economy.

While private companies fared worse than state-owned enterprises, discrepancies in that data suggest that the picture for Chinese manufacturers may be worse than officially-reported growth rates show, according to Bloomberg.

More ominously, the official PMI report also indicates rising unemployment in the manufacturing sector, with CIC Corp’s Wenqi Liu writing that she will “continue to closely watch infrastructure and property investment growth, as they might lead the cyclical stabilization.”

For now, however, the attention of China’s manufacturing sector remains squarely focused on the growing danger of escalating trade war with the US, and as long as there is little hope of a solution, sentiment will continue to deteriorate.

4.EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Italian bond yields rise to 3.20% after a report that Europe will reject Italy’s budget proposal

(courtesy zerohedge)

Italian Bonds Resume Slide After Report

Europe Will Reject Budget Proposal

Italian bonds resumed their slide, dropping for a third day as investors were spooked by the looming conflict between the populist government and European Union over the country’s budget proposal. Today’s selloff catalyst was a report by Italy’s La Repubblica newspaper which reported that there had been “rumors” that the EU would reject the country’s proposals. European Commission Vice President Valdis Dombrovskis said Friday that Italy’s plans did not seem in line with the bloc’s stability and growth pact, even though the EU had made such concessions in previous years to Spain and Portugal.

As a result, Italy’s two-year yields rose as much as 14 basis points to 1.17%, while yields on 10-year notes rose 7 bps to 3.22% with the yield spread over their German peers at 274 basis points, just short of Friday’s highs. However, after an initial selling burst, yields have since pared much of the losses.

“Headlines suggesting the EU will look to reject the budget all but places the populist coalition and the EU on a potential collision course,” said Rabobank’s Matthew Cairns “That is feeding straight into BTP levels this morning.”

While the early rumors were largely discounted, investors braced themselves for any comments from EU leaders on the sidelines of a Eurogroup meeting in Luxembourg. Meanwhile, as Bloomberg reports Italy’s Five Star Movement-League coalition has yet to lay out growth targets that formed the basis for the 2019 deficit target of 2.4%, which spooked investors Friday and prompted a hostile response by the EU.

Italy’s full budget proposal which was announced on Thursday will need to be handed over to the European Commission for full review on Oct. 15. Any rejection by the EU could cause rifts between Italy’s euroskeptics and the trade bloc, creating further market volatility.

Taking the other side of the argument, Italy’s Finance Minister Giovanni Tria told Il Sole 24 Ore that the higher-than-expected 2019 budget target is not a challenge to EU limits, adding that he had never threatened to quit, another potential selloff catalyst.

Also on Monday, Italy’s Prime Minister Giuseppe Conte said in a Facebook post that his government has set the foundations for “a serious and courageous budget,” even as growth details were lacking. Conte wrote that the budget “looks to growth” within a framework of stable public accounts; he also said that looking back over government’s first four months in power, the budget wants to offer an answer to rampant poverty, pensioners, families, savers hurt by bank crises.”

Meanwhile, even as bonds sold off, there was a modest relief rally in Italian stocks, with the FTSE MIB benchmark index rising 1.7%, partly reversing Friday’s 3.7% drop, and leading gains in major European markets on Monday.

The FTSE Italia All-Share Banks Index is up 0.8%, underperforming the MIB. On Monday, Citi cut Italian banks to neutral from overweight citing the political uncertainty.

Popular Italy hedges continued in the market Monday, with traders placing call trades on two-year German bonds, called Schatz. Such a trade involves positioning for a large gain, which could come from a flight to safety.

Fueling bearish sentiment, Natixis strategists targeted a Italy-Germany 10-year yield spread of 300 basis points, focusing on potential ratings downgrades from Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings.

“A wave of negative rating actions would have far greater implications than a simple sell-off of Italian assets, one would assume that the Italian government would end buckling under the pressure,” wrote strategists led by Cyril Regnat. “If both Moody’s and S&P decide to downgrade Italy and maintain a negative outlook on the debt, this would pave the way for significantly wider spreads, possibly around 400 basis points.”

end

Britain now offers to guarantee safe passage with respect to Ireland and Northern Ireland. This has been a major stumbling block

(courtesy zerohedge)

Pound Surges On Report UK Plans Irish

Border Compromise To Get Brexit Deal

With just six months left before Britain is due to leave the EU in the country’s biggest shift in foreign and trade policy in more than 40 years, and with the Brexit drama ongoing without a clear resolution, moments ago Bloomberg reported that U.K. Prime Minister Theresa May is preparing to make a significant new Brexit offer to the European Union in an attempt to open the door to a deal.

Brexit negotiations have stalled on the question of how to avoid the need for police and customs checks on the border between the U.K. and Ireland, but the British side now sees a path to reaching an agreement, a senior British official told Bloomberg.

The U.K.’s offer applies to the so-called Irish backstop, a legal guarantee to ensure that the border between Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic remains open and free for travel and trade after Brexit. It would only apply as a last resort in case an overarching trade deal doesn’t address the issue.

Under the plan, which is expected to be proposed later this month, the U.K. would back down on its opposition to new checks on goods moving between the British mainland and Northern Ireland. In exchange, May’s team would need the EU to compromise and allow the whole of the U.K. including Northern Ireland to stay in the bloc’s customs regime.

Although the picture is detailed and complex, the outline of a deal — as the British see it — would potentially unlock negotiations which have been in virtual stalemate since March.

The EU says without agreement on the backstop, there can’t be an exit deal. That would mean Britain crashing out of the bloc in March, and no transition period before future trading arrangements take effect.

As previously explained, the Irish border problem arises because after Brexit, the U.K. will no longer be part of the EU’s customs union and single market. The EU says this will mean goods moving into Ireland will need to be checked to ensure they comply with safety and quality standards rules and that the correct tariffs are paid.

Both sides want to avoid imposing security and customs checks at the frontier between Ireland and the British province – which would revive memories of the sectarian conflict that gripped the region for decades until a peace deal was reached 20 years ago. In order to avoid these checks taking place at the Irish border with Northern Ireland, the EU has proposed keeping the region inside its customs territory.

That would require checks to take place instead at a notional border down the Irish Sea – between Northern Ireland and the British mainland. May has flatly rejected this option – warning it would divide the U.K. constitutionally into two separate customs territories, something she said no prime minister could ever contemplate.

So what is the solution?

The proposed compromise revolves around the distinction between customs checks and regulatory checks. May wants to keep the whole U.K. – including Northern Ireland – inside the EU tariff regime as part of the backstop plan. The EU is currently opposed to allowing this, and wants only Northern Ireland to remain inside its customs territory after Brexit. That will need to change if there is to be a deal.

Under the British plan — which has not yet been announced and could change — the U.K. would keep goods regulations in Northern Ireland closely aligned with the EU rules applying in the Irish Republic. But new regulatory checks would be implemented on goods passing between Northern Ireland and the British mainland, where different rules could apply once the country is outside the EU.

* * *

Following the news, the pound jumped, rising as high as 1.3116 against the dollar before paring some gains. As Bloomberg’s Richard Jones notes, “we’ve been here before.” He adds that obviously the devil is in the details, “so the reaction will probably remain muted. Any compromise still has to get through Parliament (not to mention Conservative party conference) and the EU will need to approve it as well. Pitfalls remain and a deal is still not nailed on.” Still, at the margin this does move the situation away from a no-deal Brexit.

5.RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

IRAN/USA

The USA is evacuating its consulate in Basra, Iraq citing threats from Iran

(courtesy zerohedge)

US Evacuating Consulate In Iraq, Citing Threats From Iran

On Friday the State Department announced it is evacuating all non-essential personnel from the US consulate in Basra, Iraq.

The drastic move comes after a month of heavy anti-Iran and anti-Iraqi government protests that have gripped the southern city, which has led to sectarian rioting and the burning of Shia militia buildings, as well as the torching of the Iranian consulate early this month. During the first week of September the US embassy in Baghdad’s green zone also came under attack by mortar fire, which US officials and military analysts blamed on Iran-backed militias.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo cited threats from Iran as the reason for ordering the Basra consulate evacuation, and in a separate statement a senior US official confirmed to CNN that the “ordered departure” was due to “security threats from Iran.”

Protesters in Basra torched Iraqi government buildings in early September. Image source: AFP“US Embassy Baghdad will continue to provide consular services to US citizens in Basra,” the State Department said in its statement referencing the massive and highly fortified US compound in Iraq’s capital, which the Basra consul staff will evacuate to. It also issued an updated travel advisory for Iraq noting the removal of non-essential personnel from Basra.

Pompeo explained the evacuation order further as, “Threats to our personnel and facilities in Iraq from the Government of Iran, the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps Quds Force, and from militias facilitated by and under the control and direction of the Quds Force leader Qasem Soleimani have increased over the past several weeks.”

Pompeo further noted that “there have been repeated incidents of indirect fire from elements of those militias directed at our Consulate General in Basra and our Embassy in Baghdad, including within the past twenty-four hours.”

The US Consulate in Basra, view from within the security perimeter:

US Consulate Basra, Image source: US Consulate Basrah/Facebook“I have advised the Government of Iran that the United States will hold Iran directly responsible for any harm to Americans or to our diplomatic facilities in Iraq or elsewhere and whether perpetrated by Iranian forces directly or by associated proxy militias,” the Secretary of State said.

A number of Iraqi cities exploded in anti-government protests in the first week of September, which had strong sectarian element as largely Sunni demonstrations demanded the end of Iranian influence on the Baghdad government and the retreat of Shia Iran-backed militias.

But also amidst the early September protests ten pro-Iran Shia militias in the country had published a statement vowing to expel foreign troops and advisers by force if they didn’t immediately leave Iraq.

“We will deal with them [foreign troops in Iraq] as occupying forces, and we will use our legitimate rights by employing all possible means to force them out of the country,” the Iraqi factions warned, adding that foreign troops were “in their sights”. The statement also alleged an “Anglo-American-led dirty and dangerous conspiracy to impose a devilish coalition” on the people of Iraq which seeks to weaken the government and make Baghdad a puppet of Brett McGurk, who is the White House appointed special envoy for the anti-ISIL coalition.

Meanwhile in a speech given before Friday worshipers in Tehran Iranian officials issued threats against the United States military, and laid down “red lines” against US allies Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates. Iran has blamed the US and its Gulf allies for sponsoring a terrorist attack on a military parade in the southwest city of Ahvaz last Saturday which killed 25, including IRGC personnel among the victims.

“If America does anything wrong, their bases around Iran would not remain secure,” Ayatollah Mohammadali Movahedi Kermani was quoted as saying by Mizan news agency while leading Friday prayers in Tehran.

And simultaneously the Fars news agency quoted Brigadier General Hossein Salami, deputy head of the IRGC, as saying in reference to the Saudis and Emirates:“If you cross our red lines, we will surely cross yours. You know the storm the Iranian nation can create.”

END

IRAQ

Iraq is just not safe for women: an Iraqi model was gunned down in Baghdad and there has been a flurry of female activist assassinations by religious extremists

(courtesy zerohedge)

Iraqi Model Gunned Down In Baghdad Amid Flurry Of Female Activist Assassinations

Iraqi Instagram model Tara Faris was killed by unidentified gunmen in Baghdad on Friday, according to local media reports cited by RT. Hers is the latest in a string of murders across the country targeting female activists; in each case, extremist groups are the main suspects.

She was reportedly shot and killed while in her car in a Baghdad neighborhood.

Faris, who was one of the most popular Iraqis on Instagram with 2.7 million followers, got her start as a beauty pageant contestant in 2015. She was born in 1998 to an Iraqi father and a Lebanese mother.

She had lived in Europe for a time before returning to Iraq, living in Erbil and Baghdad. Her murder is the latest in a string of assassinations which have targeted women, with some speculating that religious extremists could be behind the attacks.

Earlier this week, a female activist who helped organize protests in Iraq’s southern city of Basra was shot dead by masked gunmen.

Faris’ killing is the latest sign that – as one Twitter user put it – “women are not safe in Iraq”.

Steven nabil

✔@thestevennabil

· Sep 27, 2018

Famous Iraqi social media character /model Tara Faris was gunned down in Baghdad earlier today. pic.twitter.com/a4A0TjHhvw

Axayê Kurda@AxayeKurda

Women are not safe in Iraq, actually no one is safe in Iraq. She shouldn’t have left Kurdistan, where she previously lived a normal life.

end

the big news of the morning. Iran fires ballistic missiles into Syria east of the Euphrates where Isis and the uSA are situated

(courtesy zerohedge)

Iran Launches Ballistic Missiles Into Syria Against Terror Camps East Of Euphrates

It’s a huge development in an extremely volatile environment: overnight Sunday Iran launched multiple ballistic missiles toward Syria against targets east of the Euphrates river.

Footage released through official state channels show missiles launched by Iran from its Kermanshah region in western Iran towards Syria, targeting ISIS positions east of the Euphrates in revenge for the September 22 attack on a military parade in Ahvaz, which killed 25 and injured scores more.

However, the United States will no doubt interpret the action as highly provocative as the US Army maintains bases precisely in the broad region targeted east of the Euphrates in Syria.

In the early morning hours of Monday (local time) Iran’s elite Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) published an official statement saying that its Aerospace Division targeted the “headquarters of the terrorists”east of the Euphrates in Syria.

A photo set showing a series of near simultaneous surface-to-surface launches was published alongside the statement.

Videos of the launch were uploaded and circulated widely in Middle East social media. Early unconfirmed reports and video suggest that a total of eight missiles were fired; however, at least two appear to have crashed shortly after launch.

“The headquarters of those responsible for the terrorist crime in Ahvaz was attacked a few minutes ago east of the Euphrates by several ballistic missiles fired by the aerospace branch of the Guardians of the Revolution,” the IRGC said on their official Sepah website.

The launch comes soon after Iranian President Hassan Rouhani called the United States a “sponsor” of those that funded the terrorist attack on Avhaz in southwest Iran — one of the deadliest in Iran’s recent history. The IRGC also vowed “a crushing and devastating response” during last Friday prayers in Tehran.

A second video of the launch has been released by the Democratic Party of Iranian Kurdistan (PDKI) official channels:

Washington has denied any involvement in the Avhaz attack, which was immediately claimed by both a local Avhaz separatist group and official ISIS media channels.

But Iran’s Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif said in the aftermath that “US masters” and regional terrorist forces should be held accountable for the bloodshed.

Iran’s top cleric and supreme leader Ayatollah Khamenei also pointed the finger at the West, condemning what he labelled”plots hatched by US stooges in the region.”

Hours after the highly provocative launch into Syria, it is unclear whether any among the missiles impacted inside Syria, and Syrian state sources have yet to issue a report or confirmation of the strike.

Iran’s official English language PressTV claimed the following, however, citing the IRGC:

According to the statement, the strike took place in early Monday by the IRGC’s Aerospace Division, killing and injuring a large number of Takfiri terrorists and ringleaders of the September 22 attack.

While there’s yet to be any confirmation of these claims of casualties on the ground, video quickly surfaced purporting to show two of the locations where missiles crashed early after the launch.

Press TV

✔@PressTV

Replying to @PressTV

UPDATE
Iran’s Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (#IRGC) strikes the gatherings of the ringleaders of the recent terror attack in the southern Iranian city of #Ahvaz, in the east of the Euphrates with several surface-to-surface ballistic missiles. http://ptv.io/2dsv

At least one Iranian state TV report suggested the missiles flew over central Iraq near the city of Tikrit and landed in the vicinity of Abu Kamal, in southeast Syria.

iranian state news sources promoted images and graphics purporting to show the flight path throughout the morning in a clear signal to regional enemies Saudi Arabia and the UAE, as well as the United States and Israel.

developing..

end

6. GLOBAL ISSUES

Indonesia

The powerful earthquake caused a massive tsunami which now hit the shores of Indonesin island of Sulawesia/ Hundred are now dead and dozens missing.

(courtesy zerohedge)

“The Situation Is Chaotic” – Hundreds Dead, Dozens Missing After Devastating Tsunami Hammers Indonesia

Communications were down across the Indonesia island of Sulawesi on Saturday after a powerful 7.5 magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami decimated communities across central Sulawesi, leaving scores dead and hundreds of buildings destroyed in the city of Palu and the surrounding area.

According to Agence France-Presse, at least 384 people died in the city of Palu, which was among the hardest-hit cities in the disaster. At least 540 have been injured, and 29 are listed as missing. The death toll is expected to swell since tens of thousands of Indonesians were visiting the city for a festival. Officials warned that the death toll was likely to rise as many more remote towns in the region have proven difficult to reach, including the city of Donggala. A landmark city bridge was among the list of destroyed music in Palu as waves up to 10 feet high swept across the city.

The quake struck near central Sulawesi at a depth of 10 kilometers just before 1100 GMT, early in the evening local time. Such shallow quakes tend to be more destructive according to Philippine Star. It was more powerful than a series of tremblors that struck the island of Lombok and neighboring Sumbawa in July and August, leaving hundreds dead and tens of thousands displaced.

Photos and video of the earthquake, tsunami and their aftermath depicted piles of debris where buildings once stood, and corpses strewn across the ground.

One particularly gruesome photo showed a man carrying the muddy corpse of a small child.

“I just ran when I saw the waves hitting homes on the coastline,” said Palu resident Rusidanto, who like many Indonesians goes by one name.

Indonesian President Joko Widodo told the press that the military was being called in to help search-and-rescue teams save victims and find bodies.

A spokesman for the government’s disaster recovery agency told reporters that telecommunications were damaged by the quake and a subsequent storm, adding that the government hoped international satellites would be able to provide backup.

“We hope there will be international satellites crossing over Indonesia that can capture images and provide them to us so we can use the images to prepare humanitarian aid,” the spokesman said.

People living hundreds of miles from the quake’s epicenter said they felt the quake, which followed a smaller jolt that killed at least one person.

Dian Onno@DianOnno

· Sep 28, 2018

Adakah yang bisa menghubungi keluarga atau teman di daerah gempa Donggala ini? Temen kantor dari sana, dan dia gak bisa menghubungi satupun keluarga dan temannya. Kalau ada kabar dan info tolong kabari ya teman-teman. Semoga tidak ada korban jiwa https://twitter.com/DianOnno/status/1045638541416361985 …

Dian Onno@DianOnno

Jadi tadi setelah #gempadonggala yang beritanya sudah banyak beredar itu temen saya masih bisa kontak adiknya. Tapi setelah itu dia dapat video ini, dan ga bisa hubungin keluarga dan teman-temannya. Mungkin sinyal mati semua. Jadi kalau ada info kabarin ya. pic.twitter.com/2HY4Yqg0ut

8:10 AM – Sep 28, 2018

The Palu airport was closed after the tsunami and was expected to stay closed for at least 24 hours, increasing the difficulty of relief efforts. The Friday quake was felt as far south as Makassar, the island’s largest city, and on nearby Kalimantan, situated on the Indonesian portion of Borneo.

Notably, the first quake hit just as evening prayers were about to begin in the world’s biggest Muslim majority country. They also took place on the holiest day of the week, when mosques are especially busy.

Officials described to destruction to the BBC.

“Many bodies were found along the shoreline because of the tsunami, but the numbers are still unknown,” Sutopo Purwo Nugroho, a spokesman for the agency, told Reuters.

“When the threat arose yesterday, people were still doing their activities on the beach and did not immediately run and they became victims,” he told a news briefing.

“The tsunami didn’t come by itself – it dragged cars, logs, houses – it hit everything on land.”

[…]

“The situation is chaotic, people are running on the streets and buildings collapsed. There is a ship washed ashore,” said Dwikorita Karnawati, head of Indonesia’s meteorology and geophysics agency.

Indonesia is one of the world’s most “disaster-prone” nations thanks to its location straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, a region that includes frequent quakes and volcanic eruptions. The ring circles almost the entire Pacific rim, and is home to more than half of the world’s active volcanoes above sea level. A deadly quake and tsunami in 2004 killed nearly a quarter of a million people, including nearly 120,000 in Indonesia.

end

\We now have a deal between Canada and the uSA on the new NAFTA and it includes the dairy concessions. The uSA gave in on the chapter 19 dispute mechanism which is still in place.

(courtesy zero hedge)

CANADA/USA

US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Reached Ahead Of Midnight Deadline

Update 4: In a joint statement by U.S. Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Canadian Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland, the new trilateral trade deal will be known as U.S. Mexico Canada Agreement, or USMCA. The new trade agreement with Mexico means “freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth.”

“Today, Canada and the United States reached an agreement, alongside Mexico, on a new, modernized trade agreement for the 21st Century: the United States-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).

USMCA will give our workers, farmers, ranchers, and businesses a high-standard trade agreement that will result in freer markets, fairer trade and robust economic growth in our region.

It will strengthen the middle class, and create good, well-paying jobs and new opportunities for the nearly half billion people who call North America home.

We look forward to further deepening our close economic ties when this new agreement enters into force.

We would like to thank Mexican Economy Secretary Ildefonso Guajardo for his close collaboration over the past 13 months.”

Key aspects of the new deal (via Bloomberg):

USMCA will include new provisions on unfair trade practices, according to U.S. officials.
Agreement includes new market access for farmers, including dairy
U.S. reaches deal with Canada, Mexico on car tariffs
Allows for pact to be signed by leaders at end of November
No agreement on Canada steel, aluminum at this point
USMCA includes rules on financial services, intellectual property
It has stronger labor provisions to level playing fields between partner countries; will incentivize more automobile production in the U.S.

The Mexican Economy Minister has just delivered the new NAFTA text to the Senate.

“It’s a good day for Canada,” said Prime Minister Justin Trudeau as the meeting wrapped up just over an hour after it started.
And with that, he said he would talk to reporters Monday.

The peso and the loonie are extending gains on the final headlines.

And US equity futures are holding notable gains…

* * *

Update 3: The final wildcard after today’s events, whether Trump had approved the big picture terms of the agreement, was resolved moments ago when Reuters blasted:

TRUMP HAS APPROVED FRAMEWORK DEAL WITH CANADA TO UPDATE NAFTA – SOURCE FAMILIAR WITH DECISION – Rtrs

According to the preliminary terms, Canada will offer access of roughly 3.5% of domestic dairy market to the US and will agree to a vehicle export quota of 2.6 million vehicles that could be exported to the US tariff free or near tariff free. Meanwhile, as reported previously, the Chapter 19 dispute resolution process will remain unchanged.

However, US tariffs on steel and aluminum will remain for now.

“We will enter October with a trilateral North American trade deal,” said Dan Ujczo, a trade lawyer with Dickinson Wright. “This was the least difficult part. The heavy lift is going to be getting a trade deal through the next Congress in 2019 as well as ratification by Mexico’s new Congress and in Canada during a federal election year.”

In response to the news, S&P futures have continue to rise and will likely hit a new all time highs shortly.

According to Daniel Dale of the Toronto Star, the name NAFTA is likely to change. Trump, often concerned about branding above all else, says he wants to call it “USMC,” for US-Mexico-Canada – “like the United States Marine Corps, which I love.” We will see how the United States Marine Corps feels about this.

Meanwhile, as Bloomberg adds, no other politician must be happier about tonight’s agreement than Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. After all, the whole point of the Sept. 30th deadline is to get a signing ceremony by Nov. 30, his last day in office.

* * *

Update 2: The US and Canada reached a deal to revise the terms of NAFTA and keep it a trilateral pact with Mexico, ahead of a midnight deadline with agreements to boost U.S. access to Canada’s dairy market and protect Canada from possible U.S. autos tariffs, Reuters reported citing 2 sources. Separately, a Mexican source close to the Nafta talks said that “we have a trilateral deal.”

Following the news, U.S. stock futures hit session highs:

Dow Jones index futures +0.5%
Nasdaq index futures +0.6%
S&P 500 futures +0.5%

As Bloomberg notes, this would make for another Trump deal with a traditional U.S. ally. Just the past couple weeks:

Trade deal with South Korea
Trade deal with Mexico
Trade deal with Canada
Trade talks agreed to go forward with Japan

Big on the to-do list are talks with the EU. If the Trump administration clears all these off the to-do list, that just leaves China. The deal was leaked as Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau convened a 10 p.m. Cabinet meeting to discuss the NAFTA deal.

While we wait for the final trade deal text, Bloomberg reports that as part of the agreement, Canada will grant more dairy access to US farmers in return for keeping the Chapter 19 dispute-settlement mechanism; According to Reuters, the deal also involves Canada agreeing to a effectively capping auto exports to the US.

As we reported earlier, and as Reuters confirmes, Chapter 19 dispute resolution mechanism is to be maintained in its current form in the new Nafta.

Trump’s administration had said that Canada must sign on to the text of the updated NAFTA by a midnight Sunday deadline or face exclusion from the pact. Washington has already reached a bilateral deal with Mexico, the third NAFTA member.

As Reuters also adds, Canada had agreed to a cap on its automotive exports to the United States in the event that the Trump administration imposes global autos tariffs on national security grounds. The quota would allow for some growth in tariff-free automotive exports from Canada above current production levels, the source said.

The Mexican Economy Ministry plans to publish the text of its trade deal with the U.S. to its website around the time that they deliver it to the Senate, 10:30pm Mexico time.

But not everyone was happy: The influential Dairy Farmers of Canada lobby group – which strongly opposes the idea – said in a statement that it insisted “any final NAFTA deal should have no further negative impact on the dairy sector.”

* * *

Update: a Nafta deal has been reached, and an announcement on Sunday night is imminent. Canada has agreed to join the trade deal that the U.S. and Mexico announced last month, according to the WaPo. The move preserves the three-country format of the original North American Free Trade Agreement favored by business groups and congressional Republicans,The treaty is expected to be signed by leaders of all three countries in 60 days, with Congress likely to act on it in 2019. A formal announcement is expected before midnight.

As Bloomberg’s Jennifer Jacobs reports, Canada and U.S. negotiators are just doing finishing touches. Furthermore, Jacobs adds that “Trump has been fully briefed and is ON BOARD with the deal.”

While details are scarce, they confirm what we reported yesterday, namely that Canada will grant more dairy access to US farmers, potentially in return for keeping the Chapter 19 dispute-settlement mechanism; according to Reuters, the deal also involves Canada agreeing to a effectively capping auto exports to the US:

CANADIAN SOURCE SAYS FRAMEWORK DEAL INVOLVES OFFERING MORE DAIRY ACCESS TO U.S. FARMERS
CANADIAN SOURCE SAYS DEAL INVOLVES CANADA AGREEING TO SIDE LETTER ARRANGEMENT EFFECTIVELY CAPPING AUTO EXPORTS TO U.S.

Bloomberg’s reporting echoes the latest update from CTV, whose Richard Madan tweeted that “top US Source says “deal is done” re #NAFTA. Joint statement from @USTradeRep & Canada’s Freeland expected soon.”

Meanwhile, Bloomberg also reports that while a deal is imminent, the joint statement has yet to be finalized. Since the midnight deadline is in just two hours, this will likely be resolved shortly.

* * *

Earlier:

As previewed yesterday, ahead of tonight’s midnight deadline for a Nafta deal between the US and Canada, it appears that a deal has been agreed upon according to unconfirmed reports, with the only outstanding items being approval from Trudeau and Trump.

To that end, moments ago Canada’s CTV reported that Canada Prime Minister Justin Trudeau has called a cabinet meeting for tonight at 10pm, “as senior Canadian officials appear to be close to a NAFTA deal.” Trudeau arrived at his office around 7 p.m., where high-level staff and Foreign Affairs Minister Chrystia Freeland have been working since early Sunday morning to secure a NAFTA deal.

He took no questions from reporters who have gathered there to monitor the latest developments as the intense last-minute push before the U.S.-imposed midnight Sunday deadline inches closer.

The end of day deadline is to work out a trilateral renegotiated text that can be presented to the U.S. Congress and can be signed off by the outgoing Mexican president before his term runs out on November 30, otherwise the U.S. and Mexico intend to go ahead without Canada.

According to a Bloomberg report, the two sides were discussing the last sticking points, including greater market access for U.S. supplies into Canada’s dairy market, in exchange for concessions from the Trump administration which was reportedly ready to agree with Canada’s wish to keep Chapter 19′s dispute-settlement mechanism.

Earlier on Sunday, Canada’s ambassador to Washington, David MacNaughton, said that talks are moving forward but not yet completed. “Lots of progress but we’re not there yet,” MacNaughton told reporters in Ottawa, where the Canadian team is gathered. He said he didn’t know if a deal would be reached Sunday, although an announcement now appears imminent.

Reaching a pact with Canada allows the 24-year-old pact to remain trilateral and for the U.S. to check another box for its legislative process in the lead up to a congressional vote.

As reported yesterday, last minute progress on negotiations was made thanks to Trump senior adviser Jared Kushner for helping smooth the path toward a deal.

When it looked like negotiations had stalled or broken down due to friction between the U.S. and Canadian sides, Kushner kept talks going with aides close to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, including Gerald Butts and Katie Telford, three people said.

Ahead of the announcement, the Canadian dollar jumped to its strongest level since May, rising 0.5% to C$1.2847, and paring its 2018 decline to 2.4%. The Mexican peso gained about 0.2 percent. S&P futures rose 10 points ahead of the announcement.

end

7 OIL ISSUES

(courtesy zero hedge)

Beijing Bows To US Pressure: China Top Refiner Halves Iranian Oil Imports

Submitted by OilPrice.com

China’s top refiner Sinopec is halving its oil imports from Iran as of September, bowing to pressure from the United States, which is seeking to bring Iranian oil exports down to zero with the sanctions returning in November, Reuters reported on Friday, quoting people familiar with the issue.

Sinopec will reduce its imports from Iran to around 130,000 bpd, based on Reuters calculation on the prevailing supply contracts between the Chinese company and the National Iranian Oil Company (NIOC).

China has previously stated that it would not stop buying Iranian oil despite U.S. efforts to have the Iranian exports down to zero. But Beijing is also said to have agreed not to increase its oil purchases from Iran. Iran, for its part, is keen to keep its single biggest oil customer – China – when U.S. sanctions on Iranian oil exports kick in.

Analysts have so far assumed that China will keep buying Iranian oil and be pretty much the only certain meaningful customer of Iran, because the other major buyer, India, is even more hard-pressed by the United States to wind down purchases from Tehran.

Sinopec – listed in Hong Kong, but more importantly, also in New York – is now facing direct pressure from the United States to curtail Iranian oil imports.

According to one of Reuters’s sources, U.S. officials visited Sinopec in Beijing in August and demanded steep reductions of oil imports from Iran.

“This round is completely different from last time. Then it was more of a consultative tone, but this time it’s almost like an ultimatum,” the source told Reuters.

Last month, Chinese refiners and oil traders were said to have started to switch to using Iran-owned tankers for almost all their crude oil imports from Tehran, in order to keep Iranian oil flowing to China.

But shipping and insurance sources told Reuters on Friday that Iran faces difficulties in insuring its own ships because western re-insurance firms are quitting their Iranian businesses.

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES.

i)india

we have been highlighting to you big problems with non performing loans in both Italy and India. Surprisingly it is India that folded first on this issue as sovereign India took control of AAA rate IL and FS bank..a major shadow bank lender.

(courtesy zerohedge)

In Shock Move, India Nationalizes Giant

Shadow Bank At Center Of Market Rout

One week after we reported that India’s NPL crisis finally erupted after IL&FS, a major shadow bank at the heart of India’s economy defaulted in one day on three debt payments, India’s government announced on Monday that it would immediately seize control of a shadow lender whose defaults have caused widespread upheaval at mutual funds.

The nationalization is virtually unprecedented: the nation’s corporate affairs ministry has sought to take control of a company on just two prior occasions, and only followed through once, with Satyam Computer Services in 2009. A bid by the government to take control of debt-laden realty firm Unitech in late 2017 was stalled by the Supreme Court after the move was challenged.

According to Bloomberg, officials ousted Infrastructure Leasing & Financial Services Ltd.’s entire board and a new six-member board will meet before Oct. 8, the National Company Law Tribunal said on Monday. India’s richest banker Uday Kotak and ICICI Bank Chairman G.C. Chaturvedi will be part of the proposed board, which will elect a chairperson themselves.

An AAA-rated entity for decades, over the last few years IL&FS, saw an increase in its debt levels. The situation worsened in the last two months with both the parent company and its subsidiaries defaulting on a number of repayment obligations. Banks and insurance companies have the largest exposure to IL&FS.

For India to resort to such a dramatic move, the panic must have been palpable: the nationalization, which unfolded within the span of a hectic day in Mumbai, underscores the government’s concern about IL&FS’s defaults spreading to other lenders in the world’s fastest-growing major economy.

Considered systemically important, the group has total debt of $12.6 billion, 61 percent in the form of loans from financial institutions. The ripple effects of its defaults have already seen mutual funds post mark-to-market losses, a slump in corporate bond issuance and a brief but sharp sell-off in equities.

As we noted previously, IL&FS’s outstanding debentures and commercial paper account for 1% and 2% respectively, of India’s domestic corporate debt market as of March 31, according to Moody, while its bank loans made up about 0.5% to 0.7% of the entire banking system loans. It is, in a word, systemic.

And while bad loans in the Italian banking system have received a ton of attention from investors, India is not far behind and India’s economic recovery is built on an even shakier foundation.

It took IL&FS insolvency to bring these to the forefront.

In addition to its direct debt exposure, there was also concern that the group’s troubles could spread to other shadow banks and crimp Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s infrastructure plans before elections next year.

“The solution would need to address how to prevent massive write downs by the banks, not merely by regulatory engineering — as that would simply defer the real problem by a few years,” said Krishnava Dutt, a managing partner at law firm Argus Partners. “As I see it, someone now needs to bite the bullet.”

The National Company Law Tribunal will next hear the matter on Oct. 31.

In response to the news, shares of the group’s listed subsidiaries climbed in Mumbai. IL&FS Transportation Networks Ltd., which develops and maintains toll highways, surged nearly 19 percent to close at 26.80 rupees, paring the year’s slump to 68 percent. Fund manager IL&FS Investment Managers Ltd. advanced about 10 percent.

The nationalized company, and the new board, will inherit a restructuring process that just saw IL&FS shareholders sign off on a non-convertible debt sale, a higher borrowing limit and a rights offering.

Some bankers to IL&FS have been hesitant to provide fresh cash injections without more details on asset sales, people familiar with the matter have said.

Other investors in IL&FS include Japan’s Orix Corp., the second-largest shareholder in the company with , Abu Dhabi Investment Authority and Housing Development Finance Corp., India’s biggest mortgage lender.

“Dismissal of the IL&FS board will raise uncertainty on the firm’s plans to sell off assets and pay off debtors,” Sunil Pachisia, vice president at brokerage Pratibhuti Viniyog, said by phone. “There is a fear that the lenders may have to take deeper hair cuts once the government steps in.”

LIC, IL&FS’ biggest shareholder with a more than 25% stake, had said last week that it would participate in the rights issue. Other investors in IL&FS include Japan’s Orix Corp., the second-largest shareholder in the company with a 23.54% stake, Abu Dhabi Investment Authority, with 12.56% and Housing Development Finance Corp., India’s biggest mortgage lender.

“Dismissal of the IL&FS board will raise uncertainty on the firm’s plans to sell off assets and pay off debtors,” Sunil Pachisia, vice president at brokerage Pratibhuti Viniyog, said by phone. “There is a fear that the lenders may have to take deeper hair cuts once the government steps in.”

IL&FS funds infrastructure projects across Asia’s third-largest economy. Its defaults on commercial paper, once considered rock-solid, from August sparked concern among households holding mutual funds invested in such debt, and forced banks, mutual and pension fund managers to brace for further losses.

In retrospect, the only solution to restore confidence and stabilize the financial system was for the government to step in. Whether this will be sufficient, or merely boost fears about what else is hiding below the surface of India’s financial system remains to be seen.

Business Finance

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end

Your early morning currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings MONDAY morning 7:00 am

Euro/USA 1.1598 DOWN .0002 REACTING TO MERKEL’S FAILED COALITION/ REACTING TO +GERMAN ELECTION WHERE ALT RIGHT PARTY ENTERS THE BUNDESTAG/ huge Deutsche bank problems + USA election:///ITALIAN CHAOS /AND NOW ECB TAPERING BOND PURCHASES/JAPAN TAPERING BOND PURCHASES /USA RISING INTEREST RATES /FLOODING/EUROPE BOURSES IN THE GREEN

USA/JAPAN YEN 113.42 UP 0.025 (Abe’s new negative interest rate (NIRP), a total DISASTER/NOW TARGETS INTEREST RATE AT .11% AS IT WILL BUY UNLIMITED BONDS TO GETS TO THAT LEVEL

GBP/USA 1.3074 UP 0.0057 (Brexit March 29/ 2017/ARTICLE 50 SIGNED/BREXIT FEES WILL BE CAPPED

USA/CAN 1.2817 DOWN .0084(CANADA WORRIED ABOUT TRADE WITH THE USA WITH TRUMP ELECTION/ITALIAN EXIT AND GREXIT FROM EU/(TRUMP INITIATES LUMBER TARIFFS ON CANADA/CANADA HAS A HUGE HOUSEHOLD DEBT/GDP PROBLEM)

Early THIS MONDAY morning in Europe, the Euro FELL by 2 basis point, trading now ABOVE the important 1.08 level RISING to 1.1762; / Last night Shanghai composite CLOSED HOLIDAY

//Hang Sang CLOSED HOLIDAY

/AUSTRALIA CLOSED UP 0.52% / EUROPEAN BOURSES ALL GREEN

The NIKKEI: this MONDAY morning CLOSED UP 77.85 POINTS OR 0.26%

Trading from Europe and Asia

1/EUROPE OPENED ALL GREEN

2/ CHINESE BOURSES / :Hang Sang CLOSED

/SHANGHAI CLOSED

Australia BOURSE CLOSED DOWN 0.52%

Nikkei (Japan) CLOSED UP 125.72 POINTS OR 0.52%

INDIA’S SENSEX IN THE GREEN

Gold very early morning trading: 1188.40

silver:$14.43

Early MONDAY morning USA 10 year bond yield: 3.08% !!! UP 1 IN POINTS from FRIDAY night in basis points and it is trading WELL ABOVE resistance at 2.27-2.32%. (POLICY FED ERROR)/

The 30 yr bond yield 3.23 UP 1 IN BASIS POINTS from FRIDAY night. (POLICY FED ERROR)/

USA dollar index early MONDAY morning: 95.31 up 31 CENT(S) from FRIDAY’s close.

This ends early morning numbers MONDAY MORNING

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

And now your closing MONDAY NUMBERS \1: 00 PM

Portuguese 10 year bond yield: 1.90% UP 2 in basis point(s) yield from FRIDAY/

JAPANESE BOND YIELD: +.13% UP 0 BASIS POINTS from FRIDAY/JAPAN losing control of its yield curve/EXTREMELY VOLATILE YESTERDAY

SPANISH 10 YR BOND YIELD: 1.53% UP 3 IN basis point yield from FRIDAY/

ITALIAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.30 UP 16 POINTS in basis point yield from FRIDAY/woww!!!

the Italian 10 yr bond yield is trading 177 points HIGHER than Spain.

GERMAN 10 YR BOND YIELD: FALLS UP TO +.47% IN BASIS POINTS ON THE DAY//

END

IMPORTANT CURRENCY CLOSES FOR MONDAY

Closing currency crosses for MONDAY night/USA DOLLAR INDEX/USA 10 YR BOND YIELD/1:00 PM

Euro/USA 1.1623 DOWN .0013 (Euro DOWN 13 Basis points/ represents to DRAGHI A COMPLETE POLICY FAILURE/

USA/Japan: 113.46 UP 0.068 Yen DOWN 7 basis points/

Great Britain/USA 1.3050 DOWN .0026( POUND DOWN 26 BASIS POINTS)

USA/Canada 1.2914 Canadian dollar UP 121 Basis points AS OIL ROSE TO $73.32

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

This afternoon, the Euro was FELL BYxxx BASIS POINTS to trade at xxx

The Yen FELL to xxx for a LOSS of xx Basis points as NIRP is STILL a big failure for the Japanese central bank/HELICOPTER MONEY IS NOW DELAYED/BANK OF JAPAN NOW WORRIED AS AS THEY ARE RUNNING OUT OF BONDS TO BUY AS BOND YIELDS RISE

The POUND LOST xxx basis points, trading at xxx/

The Canadian dollar GAINED xxx basis points to xxx/ WITH WTI RISING TO xxx

The USA/Yuan,CNY closed DOWN AT 6.8688- ON SHORE (YUAN UP)

THE USA/YUAN OFFSHORE: 6.8762 ( YUAN DOWN)

TURKISH LIRA: 5.9396

the 10 yr Japanese bond yield closed at +.13% UP 0 BASIS POINT FROM YESTERDAY

Your closing 10 yr USA bond yield up 4 IN basis points from FRIDAY at 3.08 % //trading well ABOVE the resistance level of 2.27-2.32%) very problematic USA 30 yr bond yield: 3.123 up 25 in basis points on the day /

THE RISE IN BOTH THE 10 YR AND THE 30 YR ARE VERY PROBLEMATIC FOR VALUATIONS

Your closing USA dollar index, 95.31 UP 30 CENT(S) ON THE DAY/1.00 PM/

Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for MONDAY: 1:00 PM

London: CLOSED DOWN 44.53 POINTS OR 0.19%

German Dax : CLOSED UP 42.30 POINTS OR 0.75%
Paris Cac CLOSED UP 13.33 POINTS OR 0.24%
Spain IBEX CLOSED UP 17.90 POINTS OR 0.19%

Italian MIB: CLOSED DOWN: 101.71 POINTS OR 0.49%/

WTI Oil price; xxx 1:00 pm;

Brent Oil: xxxx 1:00 EST

USA /RUSSIAN / ROUBLE CROSS: xxx/ THE CROSS LOWER BY 0xx ROUBLES/DOLLAR (ROUBLE xxx BASIS PTS)

USA DOLLAR VS TURKISH LIRA: 5.9765 PER ONE USA DOLLAR.

TODAY THE GERMAN YIELD FALLS +.47 FOR THE 10 YR BOND 1.00 PM EST EST

END

This ends the stock indices, oil price, currency crosses and interest rate closes for today 4:30 PM

Closing Price for Oil, 4:00 pm/and 10 year USA interest rate:

WTI CRUDE OIL PRICE 4:30 PM:$xxx

BRENT: $xxx

USA 10 YR BOND YIELD: 3.08%

USA 30 YR BOND YIELD: 3.23%/

EURO/USA DOLLAR CROSS: xxxx DOWN xxx ( DOWN xxx BASIS POINTS)

USA/JAPANESE YEN:xxx UP xxx(YEN DOWN 2xxxBASIS POINTS/ .

USA DOLLAR INDEX: 94.31 UP 31 cent(s)/

The British pound at 5 pm: Great Britain Pound/USA: xxxx up xxxPOINTS FROM YESTERDAY

the Turkish lira close: 6.0371

the Russian rouble: 65.54 pu 0.08 roubles against the uSA dollar.(UP 8 BASIS POINTS)

Canadian dollar: xxx UP xxx BASIS pts

USA/CHINESE YUAN (CNY) : 6.8688 (ONSHORE)

USA/CHINESE YUAN(CNH): 6.8778 (OFFSHORE)

German 10 yr bond yield at 5 pm: ,0.47%

The Dow closed UP 18.38 POINTS OR 0.07%

NASDAQ closed UP 4.38 points or 0.05% 4.00 PM EST

VOLATILITY INDEX: 12.12 CLOSED DOWN 0.29

LIBOR 3 MONTH DURATION: 2.40.9% .LIBOR RATES ARE RISING/big jump today

(from 2.39 6 yesterday)

And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

TRADING IN GRAPH FORM FOR THE DAY

Stocks Swoon As Trump Trade Deal

Euphoria Fades, Small Caps Slammed

Did Trump drink Trudeau’s milkshake?

China is closed for golden week, and while stocks weren’t trading, yuan slipped back to crucial support levels…

European markets were dominated by Italiian weakness…

As Italian banks collapsed…

Futures markets show the overnight exuberance at the trade deal.. and how it faded once Europe closed…

Nasdaq drifted into the red by the closed but the Russell 2000 Index of small-cap stocks is the worst-performing major index today (worst day in over 2 months), and that comes hot on the heels of the index’s worst monthly retreat since February.

Bloomberg notes that Small Caps may be feeling the sting of a steady stream of Fed hikes, which is increasing the cost of capital. Small companies may also be seeing some outflows as investors may now need less of a hedge against a trade war with the new USMCA deal.

GE soared after the ouster of the CEO… (but faded off early highs as dividend cut questions arose)

TSLA (stocks and bonds) soared after Musk settled with SEC…

FANG Stocks managed to cling to gains but basically did a huge roundtrip on the day…

But Tech is still dominating financials…

Treasury yields chopped around on the day but notably sold off as stocks sold into the last hour (long-end underperformed)…

Which pushed the yield curve up to on-week steeps…

The dollar index managed to hold on to gains, erasing Friday’s losses…

Of course today’s big movers were the Loonie (highest since May) and Peso (highest since August), but the latter was less impressed by the close…

Cryptos were mixed with Ripple and Ether higher, Bitcoin and Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin lower…

Commodities were dominated by a spike in crude oil as the rest of the space drifted modestly lower…

Brent topped $85… highest since Nov 2014…

WTI topped $75…highest since Nov 2014…

The irony of these oil spikes is that they occurred after headlines suggested Trump spoke with the Saudi King once again (presumably about keeping prices down).

And of note is the fact that bond yields have decoupled from oil prices now…

Gold was unable to get back to $1200…

And finally, all of this exuberance happened as The IMF warned that global growth has peaked…

ReplyForward

market trading

market data

USA economic/general stories

Oh well!! what’s a few billion dollar loss..pocket change for the uSA..it costliest stealth fighter F 35 B has crashed in South Carolina

(courtesy zerohedge)

America’s Costliest Stealth Fighter Crashes In South Carolina

A mere day after the Department of Defense touted its first ever combat engagement in Afghanistan, the multi-billion dollar in development and cutting edge Marine F-35B stealth fighter has now experienced another first — one has crashed near a Marine base in Beaufort, South Carolina.

“A 2nd Marine Aircraft Wing F-35B belonging to Marine Fighter Attack Training Squadron 501 (VMFAT-501) stationed at Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort crashed in the vicinity of Beaufort, South Carolina at approximately 11:45 a.m. (EST), today,” said a statement from the 2nd Marine Air Wing.

First photo to emerge near the crash site via local news affiliates. “The U.S. Marine pilot safely ejected from the single-seat aircraft and is currently being evaluated by medical personnel,” said the statement. “There were no civilian injuries. Marines from MCAS Beaufort are working with local authorities currently conducting standard mishap operations to secure the crash site and ensure the safety of all personnel in the surrounding area.”

The jet was reportedly on a training mission and appears to have gone down over a forested area, as early photos show black smoke rising over a tree line in a rural area.

The Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office has closed off the area, and an investigation is underway.

Beaufort County Sheriff’s Office,SC@bcsopio

BCSO: Military plane crash near Clarendon Road/Joe Allen Drive in Grays Hill. Unknown if any injuries. Please avoid area. http://nixle.us/AF4SY

12:09 PM – Sep 28, 2018

Military plane crash near Clarendon Road/Joe Allen Drive in Grays Hill. Unknown if any injuries….

At approximately 11:45 a.m. a plane crash was reported near Clarendon Road and Joe Allen Drive in Grays Hill. The military has confirmed that it was a military plane. It is unknown if there are any…

nixle.us

end

Today, Marty Feldstein (almost picked to be top honcho at the Fed) warns another recession is looming and it will be the rise in long term interest rates that will seal its fate.

A must read…

(courtesy Marty Feldstein/WallStreet Journal)

Marty Feldstein Warns “Another Recession Looms…” And The Fed’s Out Of

Ammo

Authored by Martin Feldstein, op-ed via The Wall Street Journal,

And unlike in the past, the Federal Reserve has little room to encourage growth by reducing rates…

Ten years after the Great Recession’s onset, another long, deep downturn may soon roil the U.S. economy. The high level of asset prices today mirrors the earlier trend in house prices that preceded the 2008 crash; both mispricings reflect long periods of very low real interest rates caused by Federal Reserve policy. Now that interest rates are rising, equity prices will fall, dragging down household wealth, consumer spending and economic activity.

During the five-year period before the last downturn, the Fed had decreased the federal-funds rate to as low as 1%. That drove down mortgage interest rates, causing home prices to rise faster than 10% a year. When the Fed raised rates after 2004, the housing-price bubble burst within two years.

As housing prices plummeted, homeowners with highly leveraged mortgages found themselves owing substantially more than their homes were worth. They defaulted in droves, causing lenders to foreclose on their properties. Sales of the foreclosed properties forced prices even lower, leading the national house-price index to decline 30% in three years.

Banks that held mortgages and mortgage-backed bonds saw their net worths decline sharply. A total of 140 U.S. banks failed in 2009, and those that survived were terrified by how much further the market might slide. To avoid risky bets, they shied away from lending to businesses and home buyers and refused to lend to other banks whose balance sheets were also declining.

The fall in home prices from 2006-09 cut household wealth by $6 trillion. Coinciding with a stock-market crash, the erased wealth caused consumer spending to drop sharply, pushing the economy into recession. The collapse of bank lending deepened the decline and slowed the recovery to a sluggish pace.

Fast forward to today.

Homes aren’t as overvalued as they were in 2006, so there’s little chance of an exact replay of the 2008 crisis. The principal risk now is that a stock-market slowdown could shrink consumer spending enough to push the economy into recession.Share prices are high today because long-term interest rates are extremely low. Today the interest rate on 10-year Treasury notes is less than 3%, meaning the inflation-adjusted yield on those bonds is close to zero. The hunt for higher yields drives investors toward equities—driving up share prices in the process.

But long-term rates are beginning to rise and are likely to increase substantially in the near future.Though the 3% yield on 10-year Treasurys is still low, it’s still twice as high as it was two years ago. It will be pushed higher as the Fed raises the short-term rate from today’s 2% to its projected 3.4% in 2020. Rising inflation will further increase the long-term interest rate as investors demand compensation for their loss of purchasing power. And as annual federal spending deficits explode over the coming decade, it will take ever-higher long-term interest rates to get bond buyers to absorb the debt. It wouldn’t be surprising to see the yield on 10-year Treasurys exceed 5%, with the resulting real yield rising from zero today to more than 2%.

As short- and long-term interest rates normalize, equity prices are also likely to return to historic price-to-earnings ratios. If the P/E ratio of the S&P 500 regresses to its historical average, 40% below today’s level, $10 trillion of householdwealth would be wiped out. The past relationship between household wealth and consumer spending suggests such a decline would reduce annual spending by about $400 billion, shrinking gross domestic product by 2%. Add in the effects on business investment, and this spending crunch would push the economy into recession.

Most recessions are short and shallow, with an average of less than a year between the start of the downturn and the beginning of the recovery. That’s because the Fed usually responds to recessions by cutting the federal-funds rate substantially. But if one hits in the next few years, the Fed will not have enough room to cut rates, as the fed-funds rate is expected to rise to only 3% by 2020. There also won’t be much room for a major fiscal intervention. Federal deficits are expected to exceed $1 trillion annually in the coming years, and publicly held federal debt is predicted to rise from 75% of GDP to nearly 100% by the decade’s end.

This means a downturn brought on in the next few years by rising long-term interest rates would likely be deeper and longer than your average recession. Unfortunately, there’s nothing at this point that the Federal Reserve or any other government actor can do to prevent that from happening.

end

USA retailers are warning that the trade wars will cause inflation as unavoidable prices hikes are coming

(courtesy zerohedge)

US Retailers Warn Trade Wars Will Unleash “Unavoidable” Price Hikes Before Holidays

While it seems that trade disputes between the US, Mexico, and Canada are de-escalating, the trade conflict with China is not. President Trump ramped up the trade war on Monday as $200 billion in Chinese imports took effect. This is the third round of US tariffs on Chinese imports, a significant escalation of the conflict between the world’s two largest economies.

And caught in the middle of the crossfire are US retailers, who have spent a great deal of time on investor conference calls warning about imminent price hikes during the upcoming holiday season, which could send shock waves through the wallets of American consumers.

The chief executives from Walmart, Target, Gap Inc. and Best Buy, among others, have been some of the most vocal companies warning about “unavoidable” price hikes.

According to a letter from Robert Lighthizer, the US Trade Representative, tariffs on some $200 billion worth of Chinese imports took effect Monday. There are several hundred items on the list, including electronics, kitchenware, tools, and food. The taxes are set around 10 percent but will jump to 25 percent at the beginning of 2019.

The resulting margin compression will force retailers to either eat the cost of the tariffs or pass it along to consumers, right before the critical holiday season: “The new tariffs are bad news for the retail sector, especially as the latest round seems to extend the tax to a vast array of consumer goods,” GlobalData Retail Managing Director Neil Saunders said in comments emailed to Retail Dive.

“Many retailers will now be faced with a difficult choice of whether to pass the cost increases across to consumers or to take a hit on their margins. The exact response will vary from retailer to retailer but, both strategies are likely to be used.”

In a late cycle economic environment, tariffs are especially dangerous for retailers because it could exacerbate the effects of other rising costs, “including more spending on technology, elevated logistics costs, higher gas prices, and rising labor expenses. In short, additional tariffs are the last thing the retail sector wants,” according to Saunders.

The new duties are across a wide assortment of goods, from apparel to appliances, mainly covering consumer products. Retail Dive said some retailers are working with suppliers on how to respond to their impact, while others look to shift their manufacturing bases.

Reshifting supply chains takes time and are very costly. Some small and medium-sized companies could face financial hardship due to the disruptions.

“Of course, it’s also related to the ability of our vendors to observe the tariffs, and of course we are having negotiations, or over time, usually not in the short term but over time, to diversify the supply base,” Best Buy CEO Hubert Joly told investors last month, according to a conference call transcript. “So, it’s a complex undertaking.”

Before the holidays, low-margin consumer goods, price hikes are inevitable. “As we said many times, as a guest-focused retailer, we’re concerned about tariffs because they would increase prices on everyday products for American families,” Target CEO Brian Cornell said last month, according to a conference call transcript.

“In addition, a prolonged deterioration in global trade relationships could damage economic growth and vitality in the United States. Given these risks, we have been expressing our concerns to our leaders in Washington, both on our own and along with other retailers and trade association partners,” Cornell said.

Last week, Walmart sent a letter to the Office of the United States Trade Representative, warning that the trade war impact will soon lead to price hikes.

The result of $200 billion in new tariffs “will be to raise prices on consumers and tax American business and manufacturers,” Walmart said in the letter. “As the largest retailer in the United States and a major buyer of U.S. manufactured goods, we are very concerned about the impacts these tariffs would have on our business, our customers, our suppliers and the U.S. economy as a whole.”

In an interview last Thursday, Gap Inc. CEO Art Peck told Bloomberg’s Emily Chang, the company is watching the trade situation closely, but implications are not as great for Gap because apparel is not on the list. The company has spent years diversifying its manufacturing plants across many countries. But Peck said a jump in prices would eventually hit the consumer’s wallet as a result of President Trump’s trade wars.

So from now until the rest of the year, retailers will factor in about 10% tariffs. But when 2019 comes around, the tariffs are set to rise to 25%. “Should an agreement between China and the U.S. not be found before the New Year, retailers could well start 2019 on a gloomy note,” Saunders warned.

An all-out trade war between the US and China is emerging as the most plausible scenario for 2019 and beyond, a risk that could severely impact US retailers and the American consumer.

SWAMP STORIES

A good commentary from Tom Luongo as he discusses what is going on in the uSA right now with an emphasis on the Kavanaugh issue

(courtesy Tom Luongo)

Kavanaugh, The Disgust Circuit, And The Limits Of “Nuts & Sluts”

Authored by Tom Luongo,

The Ragin’ Cajun, I believe, coined the phrase “Nuts and Sluts” to succinctly describe the tactic used by the elites I call The Davos Crowd to smear and destroy someone they’ve targeted.

Brett Kavanaugh is the latest victim of this technique. But, there have been dozens of victims I can list from Gary Hart in the 1980’s to former IMF head Dominique Strauss-Kahn to Donald Trump.

“Nuts and Sluts” is easy to understand. Simply accuse the person you want to destroy of being either crazy (the definition of which shifts with whatever is the political trigger issue of the day) or a sexual deviant.

This technique works because it triggers most people’s Disgust Circuit,a term created by Mark Schaller as part of what he calls the Behavioral Immune System and popularized by Johnathan Haidt.

The disgust circuit is easy to understand.

It is the limit at which behavior in others triggers our gut-level outrage and we recoil with disgust.

The reason “Nuts and Sluts” works so well on conservative candidates and voters is because, on average, conservatives have a much stronger disgust circuit than liberals and/or libertarians.

This is why it always seems to be that anyone who threatens the global order or the political system always turns out to have some horrible sexual deviance in their closet.

It’s why the only thing any of us remember about the infamous Trump Dossier is the image of Trump standing on a bed in a Moscow hotel room urinating on a hooker.

The technique is used to drive a wedge between Republican voters and lawmakers and make it easy for them to go along with whatever stupidity is brought forth by the press and the Democrats.

And don’t think for a second that, more often than not, GOP leadership isn’t in cahoots with the DNC on these take-downs. Because they are.

But, here’s the problem. As liberals and cultural Marxists break down the societal order, as they win skirmish after skirmish in the Culture War, and desensitize us to normalize ever more deviant behavior, the circumstances of a “Nuts and Sluts” accusation have to rise accordingly.

It’s behavioral heroin. And the more tolerance we build up to it the more likely people are to see right through the lie.

It’s why Gary Hart simply had to be accused of having an affair in the 1980’s to scuttle his presidential aspirations but today Trump has to piss on a hooker.

And it’s why it was mild sexual harassment and a pubic hair on a Coke can for Clarence Thomas, but today, for Brett Kavanaugh, it has to be a gang-rape straight out of an 80’s frat party in a Brett Eaton Ellis book — whose books, by the way, are meant to be warnings not blueprints.

Trump has weathered both the Nuts side of the technique and the Sluts side. And as he has done so The Resistance has become more and more outraged that it’s not working like it used to.

This is why they have to pay people to be outraged by Kavanaugh’s nomination. They can’t muster up a critical mass of outrage while Trump is winning on many fronts. Like it or not, the economy has improved. It’s still not good, but it’s better and sentiment is higher.

So they have to pay people to protest Kavanaugh. And when that didn’t work, then the fear of his ascending to the Supreme Court and jeopardizing Roe v. Wade became acute, it doesn’t surprise me to see them pull out Christine Blasie Ford’s story to guide them through to the mid-term elections.

And that was a bridge too far for a lot of people.

The one who finally had enough of ‘Nuts and Sluts’ was, of all people, Lindsey Graham. Graham is one of the most vile and venal people in D.C. He is a war-mongering neoconservative-enabling praetorian of Imperial Washington’s status quo.

But even he has a disgust circuit and Brett Kavanaugh’s spirited defense of himself, shaming Diane Feinstein in the process, was enough for Graham to finally redeem himself for one brief moment.

When Lindsey Graham is the best defense we have against becoming a country ruled by men rather than laws, our society hangs by a thread.

It was important for Graham to do this. It was a wake-up call to the ‘moderate’ GOP senators wavering on Kavanaugh. Graham may be bucking for Senate Majority Leader or Attorney General, but whatever. For four minutes his disgust was palpable.

The two men finally did what the ‘Right’ in this country have been screaming for for years.

Fight back. Stop being reasonable. Stop playing it safe. Trump cannot do this by himself.

Fight for what this country was supposed to stand for.

Because as Graham said, this is all about regaining power and they don’t care what damage they do to get it back.

The disgust circuit can kick in a number of different ways. And Thursday it kicked in to finally call out what was actually happening on Capitol Hill. This was The Swamp in all its glory.

And believe me millions were outraged by what they saw.

It will destroy what is left of the Democratic Party. I told you back in June that Kanye West and Donald Trump had won the Battle of the Bulge in the Culture War. Graham and Kavanuagh’s honest and brutal outrage at the unfairness of this process was snuffing out of that counter-attack.

The mid-terms will be a Red Tide with the bodies washing up on the shore the leadership of the DNC and the carpet-baggers standing behind them with billions in money to buy fake opposition.

The truth is easy to support. Lies cost money. The more outrageous the lie the more expensive it gets to maintain it.

Because the majority of this country just became thoroughly disgusted with the Democrats. And they will have no one to blame but themselves.

* * *

Join my Patreon because you are disgusted with the truth of our politics.

-END-

LINDSAY GRAHAM blasts Feinstein’s despicable process. She stupidly demands that the FBI scope of Kavanaugh to be enlarged. It seems also thatTrump is zeroing in on important text messages sent by Comey that the officials refuse to hand over.

(courtesy zerohedge)

Lindsey Graham Blasts Feinstein’s “Despicable Process” As She Demands FBI Release Scope Of Kavanaugh Probe

Seemingly unsatisfied with the fact that The FBI will not be interviewing everyone in the United States (living and dead), The Hill reports that Sen. Dianne Feinstein (Calif.), the ranking Democrat on the Senate Judiciary Committee, is calling for the White House and the FBI to release the written directive President Trump sent launching the investigation into Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.

Feinstein sent a letter to White House counsel Don McGahn and FBI Director Christopher Wray on Sunday requesting that a copy of Trump’s written directive be released to the committee.

“Given the seriousness of the allegations before the Senate, I am writing to request that you provide the Senate Judiciary Committee with a copy of the written directive by the White House to the FBI,” Feinstein wrote.

She also requested that the bureau release the names of any additional witnesses or evidencethat is included if FBI agents expand the original investigation.

Feinstein’s demands come shortly after President Trump raged about Democrats’ “Obstruct & Delay” tactics, pointing out that no matter what he does “it will never be enough for Democrats.”

And quite clearly the narrative is set as Deep Statist, and former FBI Director, James Comey called the seven-day time frame “idiotic,” while defending the FBI’s ability to investigate the allegations against Kavanaugh in a NYT op-ed.

“It is better to give professionals seven days to find facts than have no professional investigation at all,” Comey wrote in a Sunday op-ed for The New York Times.

“Agents can just do their work. Find facts. Speak truth to power.”

But, with regard to the Democrats’ new talking point – and clearly the angle that Feinstein is taking – regarding the ‘limiting’ of ther FBI investigation to ‘just’ one week, former Trump campaign adviser Michael Caputo made a quite insightful comment that has yet to produce a credible response from the left.

Caputo said Sunday on CNN that one week should be plenty of time to investigate the sexual misconduct claims brought forward by Christine Blasey Ford and two other women.

“We all know the FBI looked at 650,000 of Hillary Clinton’s emails in just 24 to 36 hours so it’ll just take a week,” Caputo said.

Caputo noted it took three days in 1991 for the FBI to investigate Anita Hill’s claims that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, who was then a nominee, had sexually harassed her.

However, Republicans are not taking this bullshit lying down as Slate.com reports that raging Lindsey Graham, speaking on ABC’s This Week today, called for an investigation into Senator Feinstein’s handling of how Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations came to light.

“We’re going to do a wholesale and full-scale investigation of what I think was a despicable process,” Graham said.

He listed the issues he wanted to look into: “Who betrayed Dr. Ford’s trust; who in Feinstein’s office recommended Katz as a lawyer; why did Ms. Ford not know that the committee was willing to go to California?”

end

This is not goodL a college friend is said to detail his violent, drunken behaviour to the FBI

(courtesy zerohedge)

Kavanaugh College Friend To Detail His “Violent, Drunken Behavior” To The FBI

With Washington in a frenzy over the FBI’s probe of Judge Kavanaugh, which according to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley would be no more than a week long and would be limited solely to “current credible allegations”, a new and potentially explosive allegation has emerged.

Late on Sunday, Charles Ludington, a former varsity basketball player and friend of Kavanaugh’s at Yale, told the Washington Post that he plans to deliver a statement to the FBI field office in Raleigh on Monday detailing violent drunken behavior by Kavanaugh in college.

Ludington, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, provided a copy of the statement to The Post.

In it, Ludington says in one instance, Kavanaugh initiated a fight that led to the arrest of a mutual friend: “When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive. On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.”

What prompted this latest last minute memory “recollection” by a peer of Kavanaugh’s? According to the report, Ludington was deeply troubled by Kavanaugh appearing to blatantly mischaracterize his drinking in Senate testimony.

“I do not believe that the heavy drinking or even loutish behavior of an 18 or even 21 year old should condemn a person for the rest of his life,” Ludington wrote. “However … if he lied about his past actions on national television, and more especially while speaking under oath in front of the United States Senate, I believe those lies should have consequences.”

The NYT also got an interview out of Ludington, and reported that Ludington said he frequently saw Judge Kavanaugh “staggering from alcohol consumption” during their student years. He said he planned to tell his story to the F.B.I. at its office in Raleigh, N.C., on Monday.

Kavanaugh told outside counsel Rachel Mitchell during the hearing that he has never “passed out” from drinking. “I’ve gone to sleep,” he said. “But I’ve never blacked out, that’s the allegation. And that’s, that’s wrong.”

During last Thursday’s hearing, Kavanaugh was agitated by questions from Democratic senators about his history with partying and drinking, at one point asking Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) if she has ever blacked out due to alcohol consumption.

“I like beer,” he said in response to one of Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse’s (D-R.I.) questions. “Do you like beer, senator? What do you like to drink?”

While this latest statement to the FBI does not corroborate the testimony of Ford, or the sexual assault allegations of several other women, Democrats have called for the FBI to take a broader look at “whether Kavanaugh may have misled senators by minimizing his carousing behavior in high school and college or by mischaracterizing entries in his high school yearbook that could indicate a penchant for drunken and misogynistic behavior.”

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), speaking on CNN, said Kavanaugh’s claims that he had never blacked out or suffered any memory loss while drinking don’t “quite make sense to me” and said she hoped the FBI would interview friends to determine whether that was credible.

She added that the FBI could also interview high school friends of Kavanaugh’s to determine whether his innocent explanations for portions of his yearbook entry are accurate.

“I’ve never heard that the White House, either under this president or other presidents, is saying: ‘Well, you can’t interview this person; you can’t look at this time period; you can only look at these people from one side of the street,’” she said. “I mean, come on.”

It is unclear if his testimony will play a role in the weeklong FBI investigation into allegations of sexual assault against Kavanaugh, the Times reported.

Several other classmates in recent days have accused Kavanaugh of misleading Congress over his alcohol consumption. Former FBI Director James Comey in a Times op-ed published Sunday charged Kavanaugh with “lying” under oath.

And while it is too early to determine what, if any, impact this latest statement to the FBI will have on Kavanaugh’s candidacy, it would stand to reason that there is only so much opposition that the Supreme Court candidate can take before even he decides that the SCOTUS seat is just not worth the constant anguish and media spotlight. At least, that’s what democrats are hoping.

end

Rachel Mitchell has now highlighted all of the inconsistencies in Ford’s testimony as she exonerates Kavanaugh

(courtesy zerohedge)

Rachel Mitchell Memo Highlights Weaknesses In Ford Testimony, Exonerates Kavanaugh

Rachel Mitchell, the veteran sex crimes prosecutor who was chosen by the GOP to question Christine Ford and Brett Kavanaugh, sent a memo to Republican senators calling Ford’s allegations a “he said, she said” case that “is even weaker than that.”

In her 5-page memo (at the bottom of this article), Mitchell wrote that she was presenting her “independent assessment” of the allegations. She said this was based on her independent review of the evidence and her nearly 25 years of experience. She alleged in the document that “the activities of Congressional Democrats and Dr. Ford’s attorneys likely affected Dr. Ford’s account.”

Mitchell, who worked in the Maricopa County Attorney’s Office in Phoenix as the chief of the Special Victims Division, which covers sex crimes and family violence, said she was not pressured to write the memorandum and it did not necessarily reflect the views of any other senator or committee member.

“While I am a registered Republican, I am not a political or partisan person,” she wrote and added that “There is no clear standard of proof for allegations made during the Senate’s confirmation process. But the world in which I work is the legal world, not the political world. Thus, I can only provide my assessment of Dr. Ford’s allegations in that legal context.”

Noting the obvious, Mitchell wrote that a “‘he said, she said’ case is incredibly difficult to prove. But this case is even weaker than that. Dr. Ford identified other witnesses to the event, and those witnesses either refuted her allegations or failed to corroborate them….I do not think that a reasonable prosecutor would bring this case based on the evidence before the Committee. Nor do I believe that this evidence is sufficient to satisfy the preponderance-of-the-evidence standard.”

Mitchell listed several reasons for that conclusion. Courtesy of Heavy.com, these included:

Dr. Ford “has not offered a consistent account of when the alleged assault happened.”

Under this header, Mitchell listed different accounts she says Ford gave, ranging from “mid 1980s” in a text to the Washington Post to “early 80s” in a letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein, among other things.

Dr. Ford “has struggled to identify Judge Kavanaugh as the assailant by name.”

According to Rachel Mitchell, no name was listed in 2012 and 2013 individual and marriage therapy notes. She did note that Ford’s husband “claims to recall that she identified Judge Kavanaugh by name in 2012” and added “in any event, it took Dr. Ford over thirty years to name her assailant. Delayed disclosure of abuse is common so this is not dispositive.”

“When speaking with her husband, Dr. Ford changed her description of the incident to become less specific.”

Mitchell stated that Ford told The Washington Post that she told her husband she was the victim of “physical abuse,” whereas she has now testified that she told her husband about a “sexual assault.”

“Dr. Ford has no memory of key details of the night in question – details that could help corroborate her account.”

Among the lack of details, Mitchell said that “she does not remember who invited her to the party or how she heard about it. She does not remember how she got to the party.” Mitchell continued: “She does not remember in what house the assault allegedly took place or where that house was located with any specificity. Perhaps most importantly, she does not remember how she got from the party to her house.” The memo then continued listing more details.

Mitchell pointed out that Ford “does, however, remember small, distinct details from the party unrelated to the assault. For example, she testified that she had exactly one beer at the party and was taking no medication at the time of the alleged assault.”

“Dr. Ford’s Account of the Alleged Assault Has Not Been Corroborated by Anyone She Identified as Having Attended – Including Her Lifelong Friend.”

Mitchell wrote that Dr. Ford has named three people other than Judge Kavanaugh who attended the party – Mark Judge, Patrick PJ Smyth, and her lifelong friend Leland Keyser, formerly Ingham. She said another boy attended but she couldn’t remember his name, but Mitchell pointed out that “no others have come forward.”

“All three named eyewitnesses have submitted statements to the Committee denying any memory of the party whatsoever,” Mitchell wrote. She stated that Keyser stated through counsel in her first statement that “Keyser does not know Mr. Kavanaugh and she has no recollection of ever being at a party or gathering where he was present with, or without, Dr. Ford.”

In a later statement, Keyser’s lawyer said, “the simple and unchangeable truth is that she is unable to corroborate [Dr. Ford’s allegations] because she has no recollection of the incident in question.”

Ford testified that Leland did “not follow up with Dr. Ford after the party to ask why she had suddenly disappeared.”

“Dr. Ford has not offered a consistent account of the alleged attack.”

Mitchell wrote that Ford wrote in her letter to Sen. Dianne Feinstein that she had heard Kavanaugh and Mark Judge talking to other partygoers downstairs while hiding in the bathroom after the alleged assault but testified that she could not hear them talking to anyone.

Her “account of who was at the party has been inconsistent.”

Mitchell said The Washington Post’s account of Dr. Ford’s therapist notes say there were four boys in the bedroom when she was allegedly assaulted. Ford told The Post the notes were erroneous because there were four boys at the party but only two in the bedroom.

In her letter to Feinstein, she said “me and 4 others” were at the party but in her testimony she said there were four boys in additional to Leland Keyser and herself. She listed Smyth as a bystander in a text to The Post and to a polygrapher and then testified it was inaccurate to call him a bystander. “She did not list Leland Keyser even though they are good friends. Leland Keyser’s presence should have been more memorable than PJ Smyth’s,” wrote Mitchell.

“Dr. Ford has struggled to recall important recent events relating to her allegations, and her testimony regarding recent events raises further questions about her memory.”

Mitchell said that Ford doesn’t remember if she showed a full or partial set of therapy notes to the Washington Post. She doesn’t remember if she showed the Post the notes or her summary of the notes.

Mitchell stated that Ford refused to provide her therapy notes to the Senate Committee.

“Dr. Ford’s explanation of why she disclosed her allegations the way she did raises questions.”

Mitchell says that Ford wanted to remain confidential but called a tipline at the Washington Post. She testified that she had a “sense of urgency to relay the information to the Senate and the president.” But she also said she did not contact the Senate because she claimed she “did not know how to do that.”

Mitchell also noted that Ford “could not remember if she was being audio or video-recorded when she took the polygraph. She could not remember whether the polygraph occurred the same day as her grandmother’s funeral or the day after her grandmother’s funeral. It would also have been inappropriate to administer a polygraph to someone who was grieving.” (Ford’s attorneys have said she took and passed a polygraph.)

“Dr. Ford’s description of the psychological impact of the event raises questions.”

According to Mitchell, the date of the hearing was delayed because the Committee was told that Ford’s symptoms prevented her from flying, but she agreed during testimony that she flies “fairly frequently.” She also flew to Washington D.C. for the hearing. Mitchell noted that Ford testified that she was not “clear” whether investigators were willing to travel to California to interview her.

She said she struggled academically in college, but she didn’t make the claim about the last two years of high school.

“The activities of Congressional Democrats and Dr. Ford’s attorneys likely affected Dr. Ford’s account.”

Under the above header, Mitchell referred to an additional timeline. You can read it at the end of the document embedded at the bottom of this article.

* * *

The above is a partial summary of the conclusions in the memo; in numerous instances Mitchell provided additional examples to back up her claims.

In his statement appointing Mitchell, Chuck Grassley praised Rachel Mitchell’s career. Grassley said that Mitchell has “decades of experience prosecuting sex crimes,” calling her a “career prosecutor.”

Although critics have alleged the GOP Senators just don’t want the bad optics of an all-male panel questioning Ford, Grassley gave another motive. “The goal is to de-politicize the process and get to the truth, instead of grandstanding and giving senators an opportunity to launch their presidential campaigns,” Grassley said.

“I’m very appreciative that Rachel Mitchell has stepped forward to serve in this important and serious role. Ms. Mitchell has been recognized in the legal community for her experience and objectivity. I’ve worked to give Dr. Ford an opportunity to share serious allegations with committee members in any format she’d like after learning of the allegations. I promised Dr. Ford that I would do everything in my power to avoid a repeat of the ‘circus’ atmosphere in the hearing room that we saw the week of September 4. I’ve taken this additional step to have questions asked by expert staff counsel to establish the most fair and respectful treatment of the witnesses possible.”

Rachel Mitchell has donated to the campaign of Mark Brnovich, Arizona’s Republican attorney general, according to The Post. The County Attorney’s newsletter also mentions that Mitchell was part of a team that won an award for dealing with a “sex assault backlog.”

end

Flake is going to have major problems when he goes back to Arizona. He had better watch his back: he admits that he would not have sabotaged the Kavanaugh confirmation if he wasn’t retiring. He did not represent his state which is Republican

(courtes zeroedge)

Flake Admits He Wouldn’t Have Sabotaged Kavanaugh Confirmation If He Wasn’t Retiring

Senator Jeff Flake (R-AZ) admitted Sunday night on 60 Minutes that he wouldn’t have thrown the Kavanaugh confirmation into disarray if he was running for office again.

The retiring Senator demanded an FBI investigation into 11th hour claims by several women that the Supreme Court nominee sexually assaulted them, despite the fact that the accusers have foggy memories and dubious, uncorroborated accounts.

When asked if he would have asked for the new probe if he were up for reelection in the November midterms, Flake responded: “Not a chance,” adding “There’s no value in reaching across the aisle… there’s no currency for that anymore. There’s no incentive.”

After failing to convince the Judiciary Committee to abstain from voting pending an FBI investigation, he insisted that he would vote “no” on the full Senate floor – and was joined by Alaska GOP Senator Lisa Murkowski – one day after she was seen being badgered in a hallways by Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA).

Flake and Murkowski’s gambit meant that the Senate wouldn’t have the majority required to advance Kavanaugh.

In the meantime, the left continues to pound on Kavanaugh’s record, while the FBI probe has bought time for new accusers to emerge. As we reported Sunday, with Washington in a frenzy over the FBI’s probe of Judge Kavanaugh, which according to Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley would be no more than a week long and would be limited solely to “current credible allegations”, a new and potentially explosive allegation has emerged.

Ludington, an associate professor at North Carolina State University, provided a copy of the statement to The Post.

In it, Ludington says in one instance, Kavanaugh initiated a fight that led to the arrest of a mutual friend: “When Brett got drunk, he was often belligerent and aggressive. On one of the last occasions I purposely socialized with Brett, I witnessed him respond to a semi-hostile remark, not by defusing the situation, but by throwing his beer in the man’s face and starting a fight that ended with one of our mutual friends in jail.”

“I do not believe that the heavy drinking or even loutish behavior of an 18 or even 21 year old should condemn a person for the rest of his life,” Ludington wrote. “However … if he lied about his past actions on national television, and more especially while speaking under oath in front of the United States Senate, I believe those lies should have consequences.”

Kavanaugh told outside counsel Rachel Mitchell during the hearing that he has never “passed out” from drinking. “I’ve gone to sleep,” he said. “But I’ve never blacked out, that’s the allegation. And that’s, that’s wrong.”

ReplyForward

Number 3 accuser is now finished as she has recanted her story

(courtesy zerohedge)

“I Don’t Know What He Did” – Kavanaugh Accuser Backtracks On Key Assault Claims In NBC Interview

Third Kavanaugh accuser Julie Swetnick just validated claims that she should be criminally prosecuted for lying in her initial sworn account alleging that Trump SCOTUS pick Brett Kavanaugh participated in “gang rapes” with his high school buddies back in the early 1980s.

In an interview with NBC news, Swetnick said that while she saw Kavanaugh aggressively hit on women at parties, she denied that she actually witnessed him participate in the rapes. She also said Kavanaugh wasn’t a member of a group of boys who assaulted her during one of these parties.

“I cannot specifically say that he was one of the ones who assaulted me,” Swetnick told Snow. “But, before this happened to me, at that party, I saw Brett Kavanaugh there, I saw Mark Judge, and they were hanging out about where I started to feel disoriented and where the room was and where the other boys were hanging out and laughing.”

She added that Kavanaugh is an “admitted blackout drunk and drug addict.”

Swetnick did not confirm that she saw Kavanaugh spike punch, one of the claims from her affidavit, she instead said that she merely “saw him around punch containers,” and that she wouldn’t have accepted a glass of punch if he were to hand it to her.

“I don’t know what he did,” she added.

NBC was unable to corroborate Swetnick’s claims after she provided four names to NBC News of people whom she said would confirm her accounts of the parties in the 1980s. After contacting all four, NBC reported that one said they did not remember Swetnick, one was dead and two did not respond.

Swetnick’s interviewer, Kate Snow, noted this before the interview and added that some details of Swetnick’s account differed from her sworn affidavit.

“NBC News, for the record, has not been able to independently verify her claims. There are things she told us on camera that differ from her written statements last week.”

However, after the interview, Snow clarified that “we’re not discounting what she said in any way. We’re just doing our reporting…There are a lot of people working on this.”

In her sworn statement, Swetnick claimed that Kavanaugh “consistently engage(d) in excessive drinking and inappropriate contact of a sexual nature with women in the early 1980s.”

During his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee last week, Kavanaugh described Swetnick’s allegations as “a joke.”

Meanwhile, President Trump said Monday that Swetnick “has very little credibility,” but added that if she has any credibility, she should be interviewed by the FBI. As of Monday, the FBI hadn’t reached out to her or her lawyer Michael Avenatti.

Still, Avenatti has insisted that his client has been 100% truthful…

…and that she has offered to take a polygraph test.

Though Avenatti has insisted that he’s “under no obligation” to produce any evidence of her claims.

WE WILL SEE YOU ON TUESDAY NIGHT.

AS A LITTLE HEADS UP, I WILL NOT BE DOING MY USUAL LENGTHY COMMENTARIES NEXT WEEK AS I WILL TAKE A LITTLE BREAK. I WILL NOT DO INVENTORY DATA CHANGES FOR GOLD/SILVER

HOWEVER, I WILL DO THE COMEX DATA AND PUT IN THE MAJOR STORIES OF THE DAY.

ALL THE BEST

HARVEY

OCTOBER 1

NUMBER OF NOTICES FILED TODAY FOR OCT CONTRACT: 772 NOTICE(S) FOR 77200 OZ

145 NOTICE(S) FILED TODAY FOR

725,000 OZ/

Bitcoin: OPENING MORNING TRADE $6664: DOWN $34

Bitcoin: FINAL EVENING TRADE: $6598 DOWN $17

First Shanghai gold fix gold: 10 pm est: $1196.94

Second gold fix early this morning: $ 1196.78

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

3A/NORTH KOREA/SOUTH KOREA

b) REPORT ON JAPAN

3 C/ CHINA

4/EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

5. RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

6. GLOBAL ISSUES

7. OIL ISSUES

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES

9. PHYSICAL MARKETS

10. USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver)

Let us head over to the comex:

FOR COMPARISON BETWEEN LAST YR AND TODAY:

Trading Volumes on the COMEX

PRELIMINARY COMEX VOLUME FOR TODAY: 213669 contracts,

CONFIRMED COMEX VOL. FOR YESTERDAY: 316,316 contracts

INITIAL standings for OCT/GOLD

And now for silver

AND NOW THE AUGUST DELIVERY MONTH

OCTOBER INITIAL standings/SILVER

Inventory 333.046 MILLION OZ

Major gold/silver trading /commentaries for FRIDAY

GATA asks bank regulator to check risks of gold

futures maneuver

Currency comptroller brushes off GATA’s inquiry on

gold, silver EFPs

Poland buys gold for first time in 20 years

You’re not invited as World Gold Council

teaches central banks about gold

Your early MONDAY morning currency, Asian stock market results, important USA/Asian currency crosses, gold/silver pricing overnight along with the price of oil Major stories overnight/9 AM EST

US Futures, Loonie, Peso Jump After Last

Minute Nafta Deal

3. ASIAN AFFAIRS

3 a NORTH KOREA/USA

3 b JAPAN AFFAIRS

3C CHINA

Chinese Manufacturing Growth Grinds To

A Halt As Exports Tumble

4.EUROPEAN AFFAIRS

Italian Bonds Resume Slide After Report

Europe Will Reject Budget Proposal

Pound Surges On Report UK Plans Irish

Border Compromise To Get Brexit Deal

5.RUSSIAN AND MIDDLE EASTERN AFFAIRS

US Evacuating Consulate In Iraq, Citing Threats From Iran

Iraqi Model Gunned Down In Baghdad Amid Flurry Of Female Activist Assassinations

Iran Launches Ballistic Missiles Into Syria Against Terror Camps East Of Euphrates

6. GLOBAL ISSUES

“The Situation Is Chaotic” – Hundreds Dead, Dozens Missing After Devastating Tsunami Hammers Indonesia

US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA) Reached Ahead Of Midnight Deadline

7 OIL ISSUES

Beijing Bows To US Pressure: China Top Refiner Halves Iranian Oil Imports

8 EMERGING MARKET ISSUES.

In Shock Move, India Nationalizes Giant

Shadow Bank At Center Of Market Rout

Your early morning currency/gold and silver pricing/Asian and European bourse movements/ and interest rate settings MONDAY morning 7:00 am

Your closing bourses for Europe and the Dow along with the USA dollar index closing and interest rates for MONDAY: 1:00 PM

Closing Price for Oil, 4:00 pm/and 10 year USA interest rate:

And now your more important USA stories which will influence the price of gold/silver

TRADING IN GRAPH FORM FOR THE DAY

Stocks Swoon As Trump Trade Deal

Euphoria Fades, Small Caps Slammed

America’s Costliest Stealth Fighter Crashes In South Carolina

Military plane crash near Clarendon Road/Joe Allen Drive in Grays Hill. Unknown if any injuries….

Marty Feldstein Warns “Another Recession Looms…” And The Fed’s Out Of

Ammo

US Retailers Warn Trade Wars Will Unleash “Unavoidable” Price Hikes Before Holidays

Kavanaugh, The Disgust Circuit, And The Limits Of “Nuts & Sluts”

Lindsey Graham Blasts Feinstein’s “Despicable Process” As She Demands FBI Release Scope Of Kavanaugh Probe

Kavanaugh College Friend To Detail His “Violent, Drunken Behavior” To The FBI

Rachel Mitchell Memo Highlights Weaknesses In Ford Testimony, Exonerates Kavanaugh

Flake Admits He Wouldn’t Have Sabotaged Kavanaugh Confirmation If He Wasn’t Retiring